More Paint!

Coming soon... pics of the dining room, kitchen, entryway, office, laundry room, and hallways...all painted and lookin' pretty. Get ready for some Filtered Shade.
:)

Bathroom Chaos

Finally got serious about getting the cabinet organized ok my side of the bathroom. It always looks worse before it looks better, right??

Hair Side Note!

Just a random post while I sit at Rice Box waiting for our dinner to say I love my hair today! It's kinda weird and flipout-y in the back, but the braid is pretty sweet, considering it took me like 3 minutes!

Dining Room Table Search

Dining room table wish list:

• round or square
• pedestal style, for the sake of our feets...and for the sake of adding more people around it..
• if it has legs, hopefully they'll be more interesting than just plain posts ("turned" legs, I think that's what it's called)
• light in color: either white, antique white, gray, or light-ish wood (not oak)
• somewhere around 50" wide
• seat about 6 normally, but can expand
• rustic but clean in style (not overly country)
• chairs can all match, or just "go" - and don't all have to be the exact same chair

After searching for months, we haven't seen anything that fits the bill, within our price range (or anywhere near it). So I'm realizing I will have to compromise, create it myself learn HOW to create it myself, or find someone else who knows how to do that, and make them create it.
Found this one at Ikea. It's rectangular, but it might be ok...

Oooh, leaf! Rob loves a good leaf. He is really concerned with fitting many many peoples around our table, whatever we pick.

The stats.

The matchy-matchy chairs that go with it. Meh. A little country cottage for me.

Also comes in this grayish brownish color (or, as Ikea calls it, Gray Brown. ahh...)

And another one we found on the same trip:

More stats.

Pretty small to start with, but it also expands. (Side rant: I will be honest, I kinda hate oval tables right now. I don't know what it is, but they are way to normal for me. I will probably get something round or square and then change my mind in like 5 years, but I just really don't like the oval table.)

As for other ideas...

This beautiful piece of loveliness: HomeGoods for $129, if I'm remembering correctly.

 And this one:

And so affordable!

 Annnnd, my favorite! (and he is still there!!!)

Ahhh, HomeGoods.. I could really spend about $10,000 in that place. (Yeah, even though everything is super affordable. I could manage that easily!)

More to come, as we I keep looking... 

Earrings

New earrings!! And they were all of $3.47 at JC Penney.. gotta love that :)

Fun Find: Funky, Cheap Prints!

I stumbled across this awesome find, wallblank.com,  on one of my all-time-fave blogs, Young House Love on this post of theirs. These are two of the most creative cats I've seen. And they have a baby! How they get it all done is beyond me! Anyway, I guess the gist is that this Wallblank site posts a new, original print each week. The YHL peeps found this cute little print for their nursery:

courtesy of younghouselove.com, http://www.younghouselove.com/2010/04/nursery-progress-adding-some-art/

At first glance it's just peas in a pod. But look closer, and you'll see that the entire thing is made of actual Ps...as in the letter P. How crazy is that? I just love stuff like this. (Side note, I think the technique is called 'stippling' - I remember doing some stippling in high school art. Check out that random knowledge!) Bonus for them, they have a P last name; so it works as a monogram as well.

Meanwhile, if you're not really liking the current selection, and you need more options NOW...check out Wallblank's vintage section. It's chock-full-o-fun-and-funky-prints, like this one:

...this one:

...and this one:

How fun are those? (all courtesy of wallblank.com)

I immediately emailed the link to the hubs (who probably saw it and immediately wondered, "Does she ever work??"  ...but that's neither here nor there...) Seriously, I already have a huge wishlist a mile long from this find. You can't help but go through it and mentally place the different prints around your house.

Backing up a little to the YHL post where I originally discovered Wallblank, they have a fabulous, custom, and cheap art idea that I MUST do now: frame interesting pieces of scrapbook paper in similar frames to create a wall collage that's tailor-made. I may be a nerd, but that's my idea of a good time!!!

Nest at the Nest!!

We discovered our very first bird's nest at the house. (Ok, this really happened about a month or two ago.. But I'm so important and busy, just haven't had a chance to add it here.) kidding...
Pics:

Guest Room Makeover

Ok, so I don't know if calling it a "makeover" is exactly accurate, since it was basically just a bed and dresser from the day we moved in...there was nothing to make over; it had only builder beige paint on the walls. We actually painted this back in the spring, but I've been pretty lazy about posting any updates. Either way, it's DONE, and looks pretty great, if I do say so myself. And I do.

It all started when we found out my brother and sister-in-law were coming to stay with us, and we decided the guest room was in desperate need of some color...or anything! We didn't have anything in the house painted, not even decorated. I'm very indecisive, so I have to know I will love it before I act. I also like having the room painted before I start to think about pictures, art, decor, etc. We do stuff when we have the money, so I didn't want to start buying furniture and wall stuff before I knew what color we wanted.

We chose a nice, muted green from Valspar...although I can't remember the color! I swear it's not the same color as the living room! We had not painted anything, so we decided we wanted to use the guest room as our guinea pig. We figured if we have guests, they probably won't be spending a ton of time in there, so if it didn't turn out perfect, no biggie. And we don't spend time in there, so we don't have to look at it! Ha! Anyway, Rob painted it while he was off (which was so nice of him to do!) and it took a few days of completing the full room, and touching up.

One thing I didn't realize is how much work you have to put into the details! The edges were insane! We also learned that we didn't like the regular blue painter's tape. We used some sort of EdgeLock brand, but it wasn't foolproof, that's for sure. Having textured walls made it pretty difficult as well. Another lesson learned - don't bother with those edger corner brush things. We spent a lot on those and decided they were crap. There is NO easy way around it. We used Frog Tape, and a very dry brush (see our living room painting).

Finally, after it was painted, I GOT TO SHOP!!! It was awesome :) I have never been able to just set an amount of money and go decorate an entire room at one time. I used mostly Ross, TJ Maxx, Home Goods, and Marshall's for just about everything in the room. I just LOVE those places!! There really is no reason to spend a lot of money on home decor stuff. I change my mind so much, that it would be silly to waste my money. Also, you can find the best deals! I got a few really great bargains because they were pieces of of things, or just odds and ends. So always check the clearance section first. You never know what you'll find.

Here's a list ff everything I found for the room, with prices. Keep in mind, this was months ago, so I'll really try to remember the details:

Cream-colored down comforter: Ikea, about $30 or $40, wish I could remember...

White, full sheets: not sure, but either TJ Maxx, Ross, or Home Goods. Probably about $20

Green leaf euro pillows: TJ Maxx, $13 each

Olive green pillow: Ross, $8.99

Orange wheel pillow, for a pop of something other than green, and for the fall: Ross, $5.99 (crazy cheap, huh??)

White throw: Ross, $25ish

3 wooden, woven stick-things (what else should I call those??): Ross, on clearance for $1.49 each!! I just grabbed them, thinking they were too cheap to pass up!

Mission style small bookshelf: Target, I've had it since college. Probably around $30 at the time

Brown metallic, fish-looking vase: Home Goods, $7.99

Brown-capped diffuser (set of 3, only used 1 in the room): $6.99

Set of 3 copper: I just can't remember where or how much; probably about $5-7 from one of the above-mentioned stores.

HUUUGE palm tree/map hanging artwork: Ross, $24.99 each. I felt for the size of the pieces, and the nice, thick frames, this was such a great deal! They're not the best quality, but they're pretty much exactly what I had pictured for the theme of this room.

Sheer mocha curtains: TJ Maxx, $5.99 each

Curtain rod: our own, have had it for a long time...

Espresso brown faux leather ottoman: Home Goods, $49.99

Small, cream colored, faux leather lamp: my own, from Target years ago.

So I think that pretty much covers everything. We also have an old dresser that we recently inherited from Rob's parents. His grandfather made it in the 40s! I believe it's mahogany, the stain matches the cheapo Target bookshelf, and it's actually pretty darn cute! We decided to move the palm tree pictures and place the dresser on that wall, opposite the bed. We also have a cute framed mirror that was on clearance for something like $12 at Ross. The frame is a nice metallic brown. We love some brown!!

Oh yeah, and one more thing to add to the room: we have a map of the Caribbean that we got on our honeymoon in Jamaica. Nothing special, but it was cute and it shows one of our most favorite vacation spots. Woo hoo for the beach!