y'all ready for this redo?

So I promised a picture of the awesome mirror that Frances gave me. And months ago it seems, I promised to tell you about the curtains I made and the master bedroom redo. Well, today is your lucky day. (or not your lucky day if you hate long posts) I'm doing all three!

First the mirror.

My friend Frances gave me this beautiful mirror that had been in her home. I was stunned when she gave it to me, because it is so gorgeous. It was gold, which I loved, and I didn't want to change it.

Here is a before picture I snaked off of her blog:


As you can see, bee-yu-ti-ful!!!!

So I brought it home and put it in my bedroom, and there it sat for a month. Why? Because I could not figure out where to put it that the gold would look ok with the rest of my house. But I didn't want to paint it. However, it could not be denied any longer. I had to make it match the rest of my house, otherwise the gift would be wasted sitting in a closet somewhere unused.

I wanted to preserve the integrity of it, I didn't just want to spray paint it silver and have that be good enough.

So I used this 10 dollar bottle of paint. It's called Sophisticated Finishes. It's a metallic surfacer in Pewter. It took two coats, and careful painting of a pretty detailed surface. But the end result? See for yourself. (Frances-I REALLY hope you like it!!!)

To die for? Yes? Everytime I walk into my bedroom, I get excited looking at the mirror. It somehow brought the whole room together.

That tall dresser/lingerie chest? I bought it off of Craigslist for Nora when she was born. We did some rearranging and it ended up in our room. It was cream colored with gold drawer pulls. Well, I fixed that, on accident. When I was trying to hang the mirror by myself, I accidentally knocked over a little can of mint green paint that I had been using to improve my night stands. Luckily it didn't go onto the carpet, just all over my dresser. So I scooped up as much as I could, and not wanting any to go to waste, I just dipped my paint brush in the puddle on the dresser and started painted the lingerie chest. Then I used left over pewter metal surfacer, thank you very much, and painted the drawer pulls.

Oh, and the ruffled lampshade? I just used the same instructions that I did for the curtains I'm going to show you, and then hot glued it on. Don't worry, I'll link you to where I found the smarty pants who figured out how to make these bad boys!!

It's not a good picture I'm sorry. And you can tell that I did the one on the left first because it is not as good. Oh well. Here is a close up.

So I saw these fabulous waterfall ruffle curtains on A Beach Cottage(her bedroom is also the inspiration for mine). I looked them up on Urban Outfitters, and they were $80. A panel!!! That was not working for me, so I started googling ruffle waterfall curtains and found this gal.

I followed her directions exactly, EXCEPT, I didn't want each ruffle as wide as she made hers, so I cut them in half which kept the length of the curtain the same, but meant twice as much sewing. I ain't gonna lie. I spent about 16 hours on these babies. Admittedly, it would have been less if I had kept the ruffles wider, but I love them this way. And they only cost 10 dollars a panel. A lot less than 80, and I like them better!

And for the lamp shade, I used a sheer material thinking it would be all light and pretty. Which it is, but when you turn the light on, everything shows. All the mistakes,everything. So I would use a heavier weight material next time.

The rest of the bedroom has some together slowly. Some finds from goodwill and "junk" stores. Moving around things I already had, and yard sales. Seriously folks. I spend soo little money. I don't have a decorating budget. I have a 12 dollars here, 20 dollars a paycheck there, budget. You can do this. You just have to be patient.

Here is our little reading nook. I know that not everyone has such a stupidly oversized master bedroom. (it came this way. I would never design such a large bedroom. Although I love it now.) So you might not have room for a bigger area. But if you can squeeze a comfy chair in anywhere, I highly recommend it.

Don't you love that girl reading? It's a giclee that I found at Goodwill of all places. It's by Jean-Honore Fragonard and it's appropriately named "A Young Girl Reading".

I did splurge on lamps for our nightstands. They are from TJ Maxx and they were $30 each. But that included the shades. I thought it was a good deal. Oh, and a few clearance pillows I was fortunate to find. And the "iron" bed is from Ikea. It was 99 dollars. I sold something to pay for it. And the yellow crocheted throw was made by my great grandmother. It alternates between the ottoman and our bed.

And lastly, some windows from a 1920's beach house that I found at a garage sale. Jeff is going to hang them on the wall for me, and I have a picture of the temple to put between them. But for the picture, they're just propped up there. I love them!!!

My whole inspiration for our room was wanting it to look like a bedroom in a beach cottage. I feel like it ended up looking more like a beach cottage on the coast of France. And I seriously could spend waaay more time than I should just hanging out here.

Anyway, there it is. Oh, and I left the room grey from my previous bedroom makeover. (I'm a little embarrassed by that one now. But it truly is a work in progress)It just seemed to work somehow. And it saved me 100 dollars in paint, and A LOT of work.

There you have it. I love my bedroom. Let me know if you have any questions about anything. And I'll try my best to answer! Have a great day!

Entre le pot rack

We are fortunate to have a good sized house. Plenty of space for 2 adults and six kids, I love my house.

However, our pantry is not very large. And it is, in fact, the same size as the pantries of other houses in our neighborhood that have less bedrooms and less square footage.

But I will not complain. My friend/neighbor Laura is always reminding us not to complain about our nice, new houses. And she is right. And I try to do that. But my pantry just can't be improved upon simply from liking my house. It's just not big enough for a family of eight!

Here is proof: (Ignore how unorganized and empty my pantry is, I'm going shopping today!)

I started thinking of ways to increase our pantry space. The only thing that kept coming to mind was to use some of our cupboards. But I'm already using my cupboards, for other stuff!

But then I was over at The Nester, and I saw her pot rack. Just a simple little thing to keep pots. And a light went on. What if I moved my pots to a pot rack, and used the cupboard they HAD been in for other stuff?

So true to my nature, I had to have it, and have to have it immediately! I scoured the internet looking for pot racks. The racks in my price range were simple and a little boring for me. But the ones I really liked were waaaay out of my price range, and all I could do was drool over them.

So then I started looking on craigslist. And I found it. A beautiful, iron, hooks welded on, star pot rack. And it was only $60!!!! But the problem? It was two hours away! The gas alone would cost more than the pot rack, making the good price suddenly not so good.

But being optimistic, I emailed the gal and asked her if she could meet me halfway possibly? She emailed back and said, "Hey, we're going to be in Enumclaw tomorrow (that's 15 minutes from me!!!!!), do you want to meet there?" Um, yes!

So Jeff and I went together, for safety folks, ALWAYS be smart and safe when using craiglist.

And when I saw it, I squealed in delight. Truly. Ask Jeff. I squeal with excitement over good finds!

It was a tad rusty from sitting in their barn. So I just took the grill brush that we aren't using because our bbque is broken and scraped all the loose rust off. Then I washed it with soap and water, let it dry, then gave it a coating of Rustoleum high gloss spray paint in what can only be described as fire engine red. And then my darling husband (who wasn't totally sold on the idea of a pot rack) hung it for me. And he might of had to replace the pendant lights with canned lighting as well. So really, none of this was possible without him. Jeffy is my right hand man when it comes to many of my redo's, decorating notions, and furniture move arounds. I couldn't do it without you darling!

And the results?

Let me just say, that it took some getting used to. And I had to put some doors back on my open cupboards because it was all of sudden much to busy in there. But I love the pot rack itself. I think it's loverly!

But the best part is the space it opened up. This is where my pots used to go:

These pull out drawers sit under my baking center. So it seemed smart to keep all of my cooking/baking food items and needs right here. And all those containers, and the big bag of flour and sugar I normally have that take up so much room in the pantry, can now go here.

Which makes more sense anyway, and now I don't waste time going back and forth and opening and closing the pantry door just to make muffins!

I love it!

What space saving ideas do you all use? Even though we have plenty of room, I'm always looking for more ideas on how to keep the stuff that 8 people need at a minimum.

Ooh, ooh and tomorrow, I'm showing you the MIRROR. My dear friend Frances gave me a mirror. And oh how I adore it and get happy every time I see it. I'll show you that tomorrow!

Now I'm off to fill my sort of empty pantry. See ya!

From free to fab

About 3 months ago, Jeff and I were running near our house. As we rounded a corner I saw a man putting things out under the tree in his front yard.

My quick to find free and cheap things brain zeroed in on a free sign sitting next to this pile.

Included in this pile was one rough looking, in need of a makeover, wood chest. Or a hope chest as I have called them.

It was calling to me. Begging me to take it home.

I practically begged the man to let me have it AND to set it aside for me so that we could finish our run and come back with the van.

Even though it was free, he was quite chagrined at the shape it was in and kept telling me all the things wrong with it. The missing foot, the piece of laminate missing, the much damage finish.

I was like,"Buddy, it's free. I'm good with the shape it's in!"

So he cheerfully set it aside (probably so happy to be getting rid of it) and we came back later and picked it up.

Admittedly, it did not smell awesome. It smelled exactly like a piece of furniture that had been sitting in a garage for quite some years. But, it was a Lane Cedar Chest. If you don't know Lane, you should. They ARE cedar chests. So I felt I could work with it.

When I got it, it looked like this:

And this:

But the inside was perfect! Absolutely perfect. It looked like this:

My first job was to figure out how to replace the lost foot. Where do you find an extra foot for a 1960's Lane Cedar Chest?

Well, you don't. So I just knocked off the other three feet and called it good. And rather than figure out how to replace the missing piece of panel, I just left it.

I then proceeded to give the whole thing a slight sanding with my mouse sander. It didn't need much. And I loved the dings and little dents in it. It gave it a well used, which to me means loved, look.

Then I gave it 1 coat of oil based primer. Let it dry for 24 hours (just to be sure it bonded really well).

And of course I didn't take any pictures of the during process. It takes way too much time to go get the camera! How could I slow down my fevered pitch long enough? Sheesh. I have issues.

So after priming it, I lightly sanded it by hand, just to catch any drips or mistakes and to give the paint even more to cling to.

I picked a Caribbean Blue because it just spoke to me. It really did. In Home Depot. It was weird.

I slapped two coats of that lovely shade on, sanding between coats, and it came out like this:

I added a little white to some of the blue so that I could paint the section missing some wood a lighter color. Then I distressed the whole thing so that it would continue to look like the well loved piece of furniture it is.

I didn't have any antiquing gel, but I did have a little sample of brown paint. So I dabbed the paint on an old towel and rubbed it over the distressed parts.

When I was all done, I put a water based poly-urethane on it, and then stepped back to admire my work.

All in all, it may be my favorite thing I've ever done. The blue color, the distressed corners, the strip of lighter blue, and the fact that the inside was so pristine that I actually have my belongings in it.

It's the one pop of color in a pretty white room. Which I will show you when I'm all done. A hint at something else I did, those ruffly white curtains-probably my second favorite thing I've ever attempted.

Not all of my attempts work out. Or sometimes they just work out ok. And then sometimes, they work out so good that I brag about it on my blog. Can you forgive my self indulgence? With it sitting in my bedroom, the only way I can show people is by dragging them upstairs, or by putting it on my blog. So thanks for your understanding and support.

I love it, I loved doing it, and I love all of you!!!

Sea anemone mantel

So in the interim between blogger working again, I had some projects in my head that I had been wanting to get done.

One was a fun little thing I made for a minor room redo that my friend Amber and I did for another friend.

Our friend ended up not using it, so I was the lucky one who got to incorporate it into my family room.

I found a clock at walmart for 6 dollars. I then used those giant sticks from Ikea(I actually got them at a yard sale for 2 bucks). I cut them in random length and then glue gunned them to the clock. After removing the glass, I spray painted the whole thing white.

It makes me think of a sea anemone. It's all spindly and random, and under 10 bucks, which is probably the best part.

I've also been working on my bedroom. It's coming along so fantasticly, I can hardly wait to show you what I've done. I have 10 dollar curtain panels to share, and the makeover of my free Lane cedar chest.

Have a great weekend! It's going to be over 70 degrees here! The first of the year. I can't wait!

Toodles.

In the meantime

A while back I was invited to be an instructor for a workshop being offered on a wide variety of do it yourself type stuff.

Presenters ranged from repurposing furniture(me) to photoshop, starting a business from home, refashioning your wardrobe as well as a wide variety of make and take classes.

The workshop was postponed, but not before I found this awesome 5 dollar 1950's kitchen chair at goodwill that I had planned on showcasing in my class and then giving away.

(this picture is mid take apart after I realized I should probably have a before picture.


You get the picture though. Ugly vinyl, goldish metal.

But I had a vision for it. Oh yes I did.

Part of my class was to teach people that anyone can do great things with old or outdated furniture and do it for little money and little time. Usually.

I am not a perfectionist when it comes to the things I redo. I don't have time for perfection. I have time for good enough and get it done.

So this afternoon I got the make something over bug. Since I have to wait on my bedroom, I decided to tackle the chair. Even though I now won't be teaching a class or giving the chair away. But it added some spice to my afternoon for sure.

I started by unscrewing the seat and back. I didn't bother taking the old fabric off because if the padding was questionable (which it probably was) I didn't want to spend time or money replacing it. So I just left the old vinyl on and recovered it.

I used the scraps left over from my laminated cotton table cloth which I talked about here. And I just used a staple gun to staple the edges of the fabric.

(Sorry, I don't have midway pictures)

I then spray painted the chair with Krylon Blue Ocean Breeze.

When the chair was all dry, I screwed the seat and chair back onto the chair frame.

And voila!!

It's pretty amazing what some left over paint and fabric can do. I just like looking at it. It makes me happy.

Sorry this isn't a real tutorial. Mostly cuz I just kind of made it up as I went. But that's the way I roll.

I just like to get stuff done within a relatively short amount of time from start to finish.

Mostly it works out cuz I'm not concerned with it being perfect. And it doesn't have to be to be beautiful.

Eating breakfast and a Springy, Eastery mantel

In efforts to change the decorations on my mantel to coincide with holidays and seasons (a first for me)I found two new things for my spring mantel. The larger wreath was 3 bucks on clearance, and I spray painted it with a variety of spring colors. And the egg wreath was 2.50 in the dollar section at target. I grabbed a few other things from around my house and moved things around until I had an aesthetically pleasing configuration. I'm pretty pleased with it. And then a question. Does anyone else's children insist on eating standing up? Julia still does this without constant reminders. And now it seems that Nora is following in her footsteps. She'll sit when I tell her to, but she looooves standing while eating, or her favorite? Sitting on the counter and eating. Oh well. Cute, youngest of 6 children little girls pretty much get to do what they want. At least that is what she thinks.

P.S. I still can't figure out why the spacing I create when I composing disappears when I push publish. Any ideas? Jeff? You would know.

Finding solutions that make my life easier

When we moved into this house, we realized that with the birth of child number 6, our kitchen table was no longer adequate. So Jeff made a new leaf for it. It was a good functional piece, but without the tools or the desire to spend money on awesome wood, it could not be wiped down like the rest of the table.

So I came up with a brilliant (in my estimation) plan on how to get around it. All growing up we had some sort of plastic covering over our dining table to protect it. From us.

I took that idea and improved upon it. I found the fabric I liked, layed that down on the table, then laid down the clear plastic stuff you can buy by the yard at fabric stores( I got mine at Walmart) on top of that, and then stapled the whole thing to the underside of the table.

Exhibit A:



My, my, my children are little in this picture.

This worked so well, and made me soooo happy.

I found, though, that around 6 months the plastic overlay would start to get past being able to just wipe down, and we would throw it out. That's fine. 12 bucks every 6 months, I could handle that.

And then we were gifted my in-laws old table. The table that can seat up to 14 people. The table that is wide enough that you can have a fully set table and still have plenty, and I mean plenty, of room left for the actual dinner and serving trays.

So while it was perfect for entertaining, it no longer fit a normal width of fabric or the plastic overlay. Hmmm. What to do.

Well, I searched for wider plastic. None to be found. So I sewed a table cloth-I had to since the table was sooo ginormous. No regular size fabric or table cloth would fit it.

And then I layed the plastic down in 3 strips so it kind of overlapped, and I called it good enough.

Except it wasn't. The kids would run their hands under those overlapped parts, liquids would spill and seep under the overlapped parts.

And while I could just leave it all off and the table is perfectly sound and easy to wipe down, the 80's oak just wasn't appealing to me and I wasn't ready to strip it and paint it white. Which is my eventual plan.

Enter...fate. Whilst perusing Fabric.com, I found something called laminated cotton. Ever heard of it? Well, I had not. It's basically stuff you would use to make a rain jacket, or covers for outdoor furniture.

And it must be gaining in popularity because there were quite a few lovely patterns to select from and the best part? It came in 58 inch width. Which meant it is wide enough for my table!!! No sewing involved, and no plastic overlay to replace!

It arrived today, and I must say.. I love it! Passionately. It's like it was made for my kitchen.

Don't you think?







Oh, and guess what? Just 6 days til Mindy Gledhill is in my house!!!!! I still have a few tickets left. Get them before their gone!

Family Room

So now I can let out a big sigh of relief. For the entire 2 1/2 years that we have lived in this house, the family room as been my nemesis.

Yes, my nemesis.

No matter what I did with it, it always felt lacking, not comfortable enough, not situated right, not homey enough.

I went through 3 different sets of couches.

I only bought one of them, off of craigslist for super cheap.

The first set I already had, the third set was given to us.

The last set, a couch and chair, are this beautiful yellow. They used to be my mother in law's, who happens to have wonderful taste in everything.

So when she offered them, I jumped.

And then within a month, we had written on, spilled on, and generally destroyed what was once beautiful.

So I schemed and imagined how I could fix that.

Slipcovers are expensive, good ones.
I might be able to make some, but the material would still be 200 bucks, and who knows how it would turn out.

So then, while perusing the internet, I came upon some ikea couches that had similiar lines.
And Ikea's white slipcovers are super cheap.

So I figured I had nothing to lose.

So for 50 bucks for the sofa, and 40 dollars for the chair, I was able to slipcover the yellow couches.

And the red couch leftover from sometime in the middle of my decorating angst, I just put a white coverlet on it, leftover from a bedroom redo.


Now, I know you're saying, white? why would you buy white?!
Because I can take them off and bleach them. That's why.

And for 90 dollars total, I would have taken almost any color.

I bought this frame at Goodwill for 2 bucks. It was gold.
I spraypainted it white, and then put chalkboard paint on the cardboard backing.
Yup, that chalkboard is just cardboard.

Then I spray painted the frames on top of the red door and pulled a lamp in from another room.

The silver plate things on the wall I got at Target for 6 bucks total.
The apothecary jars were kind of a splurge at 10 bucks each, but the taller one has a bird on it. I mean really, a bird? I had to have it.

The oval silver plate was just the same white one that has always been hanging there, I just spray painted it silver.



The curtains, I made about a year ago. I loved the fabric and wanted them in the family room, but at the time they just didn't work.

But with white slipcovers and a few subtle changes, they work fabulous now.



And lastly, my one furniture purchase for this room.
We have never owned a coffee table in the 14 years we've been married.
But now that this room no longer holds a t.v., I thought it would be fantastic to have something to play board games on.

So I found this at Goodwill for 25 dollars. I primed and painted it, replaced the busted knobs, and voila!

And just so you know, I actually don't keep a bowl of baubles in reachable distance of my 2 and 4 year olds.

But a girl can dream of being able to one day, so I added that just for the picture.





So there you have it. Everything was either a Goodwill purchase and repainted, on clearance, or unbelievably cheap.

I think over the course of a year I spent 225 dollars. But that included the slipcovers and the fabric for the curtains.
It's possible to have the room you love on a budget, you just have to be patient as you look for the perfect things, and be a tad bit neurotic.

But that's me, on a budget and a tad bit neurotic. Nice to meet you!

Have a great weekend.

Oh, and Happy Birthday Maile, my sistah!

Nora's Room

First of all, let me tell you that my four younger children have all switched bedrooms more than a few times.

We try to make things work with sleep schedules, bedtimes and boy-girl ratios.

So the room that Nora is now in, was at one time Anne Marie's room. Then Nora moved in with her. Then, when that wasn't working, Anne Marie moved out and Nora now resides in this room.

When it was still Anne Marie's room, I worked painstakingly on the wainscot look around the bottom of the wall. I didn't have money for real wainscotting, or even beadboard wallpaper. So I handpainted the little lines around the whole room.

It took days. Which for me, anything that takes days is slow torture.

But I am happy with the final product.




Now, those curtains used to be in my family room. They have traveled with me from house to house and state to state for the last 10 years. They are my favorite Ikea purchase ever. They have been in multiple master bedrooms, living rooms, and now Nora's room.

The white frame with the daisies was also in the family room, holding a picture of my children.
The picture of my children is still there, but with a different frame. (Hopefully I'll show you the family room next week, if you care. You do care, right?)

This next picture also holds some items from my family room. The star coat rack, the lamp, and the paper flowers, all used to be in my family room as well.

The birds have always been in Nora's room. My lovely friend Teresa made them for us, and they are one of my absolute favorite things.



This wall mural has an interesting back story. Well, it's interesting to me anyway. I have wanted to put owls in Nora's bedroom for about a year now. They are whimsical and sweet and easy to find at the moment. Target has a really adorable toddler bed set that has owls on the comforter. They also have a matching wall hanging, pillow and lamp.

Well I knew there was no reason to buy the bed set. Nora refuses, and I mean it literally, refuses to sleep with anything other than that white and blue flower blankie you see in the picture. She will cry and wail and not go to sleep until she has it. So why buy her anything else, no matter how cute?

But she loved the little pillow. And I loved the wall hanging. But I did not want to pay 25 dollars for an 11 x 17 wall hanging that while cute, wasn't quite big enough for the space. So I decided to be a copy cat. I am not an artist. I can't draw anything our of my own head besides stick people. But I am pretty decent at copying things. So I took of picture of the wall hanging with my phone,
praticed drawing it onto a piece of paper, and then using that as a visual guide, I painted it onto the wall.

This was an easy subject matter to do this with. The style is naturally whimsical and therefore not perfect in it's lines or color. So I was able to pull it off with a fair amount of success. Here is the link to the "real" one.



And Nora loves that I colored on the wall. She kept doing a little dance while singing, "I like it, I like it, I like it."

That little song and dance were worth all the hard work.

Finally, this chandelier. I bought this chandelier years ago at Target on clearance. It was 10 bucks. I didn't know what I wanted to do with it, but I knew I loved it-passionately. So I bought it and hung onto it. I'm a big believer in buying things that you really love. If you really love something it will fit in your home, I promise, it's true.

So finally, this dreamy little girls bedroom presented the perfect backdrop for a pink, fake crystal chandelier.

I even wired it all myself. Jeff helped me a little at the end when it required one set of hands to hold it while the other put things in place. But I will tell you, nothing is an empowering as realizing I can wire something by myself.



So there you have it folks. Reusing stuff from another room in the house, plus a little paint, and we have a fun, sweet, whimsy filled bedroom.

Now, if she'll just love it until she a tween at least.......

When I get bored

When I get bored, I redecorate.

And I don't mean bored as in "I have nothing to do, look at poor me sitting around all day."

No. I NEVER get that kind of bored.

But I get bored with looking at the same thing over and over. So I do things like change the mantel.

My sister can attest to my decorating neurosis.

While visiting with her family this last weekend, I made her help me rearrange the furniture in my family room, and I bored her for a good half an hour with tales of my sofa dilemma, and colors and what should go where and why I feel nuts all the time and spend hours thinking about or staring at parts of my house that aren't quite right yet.

She asked, "Is this what it's like in your head all the time?"

Um, yes.

"Well, it's exhausting."

Yes, yes it is.

As I rearranged my living room, I took old things down, or put them in new places, I added a few cheap Target and Goodwill finds, and overall I am really happy about the new direction the family room is taking.

But as I took stuff down, I kept saying "This would be cute in Nora's room."

When I was done, I had a good pile going for her room and I am now also in the middle of semi-recorating her room as well. Pictures to follow sometime this week. Hopefully of the family room too.

This redecorating frenzy started with my kitchen. I love my kitchen. I love the colors and all the stuff that would make other people crazy to look at it all the time.

But I also was needing a change in there. A change in a kitchen without painting and with no budget you say? How do you do such a thing.

I just took the doors off of some of my cupboards

What?! Are you crazy? you ask.

No.

Let me show you.

The photos are not very good quality, but you get the idea.

It was exactly the facelift I needed. It did cost me about 20 bucks to find a few white dishes and that awesome red lamp from Goodwill to fill in the gaps, but we use every single thing in that cupboard. None of it is decorative only.

I didn't want kitchen cupboards that I couldn't use. How stupid would that be? But I arranged them in what I felt was an aesthetically pleasing way, and we use most everything on a daily basis.

I was also able to display some of my crystal that we DON"T use everyday, by mixing it with things we do use at least weekly.

So here is a before:

And after:

I also had to rearrange my drawers and placement of things on the counter a little too to accomodate where I moved the baking and lunch centers. But I am happy with the way everything is working.

It's not for everybody. Many people need clean, simple lines and this would feel like too much visual clutter. But I'm not everybody. I'm me, and I like it.

That's how I approach decorating in general. If I like it, then whatev to how other people feel about it. I mean, really, I have to live with it, no one else. Well...my family does too, but they just have to live with it too I guess.

And I'm not saying I totally discount other people's opinions. I have neighbors and my sister and sister in law who decorate completely different than I do. But when I am stuck on a color or pattern or arrangement, I like to ask them so that I can get a fresh perspective. It helps that they all know me so well, so that their advice mingles well with my style.

But ultimately, I do what I like.

And so should you.

When I first took the doors off and arranged things, I would close my eyes,jump around the corner,and then open them real quick so that I could be happily surprised everytime I walked in my kitchen.

True story.

That's how decorating should make you feel, I say.

I love getting new ideas. Taking the doors off is not my own original idea. I first saw it here.But I made it my own by adding my own flare to it.

There is so much that can be done with little to no money and a little creativity.

How do you decorate that is unique to you?

I love new ideas, so please, please share.

Now I'm off for more of what I obviously can't get enough of.

See you tomorrow.

Fall Mantel

This is my first year decorating my mantel for anything other than Christmas.

Weird, I know.

I've known and heard of lots of people who decorate for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentines and the 4th of July.

I was just never one of those people. It seemed like too much work and effort.

But then I started to get sick of seeing my mantel the exact same everyday.

Sorry for the fuzzy picture, it's all I could find.


So while lovely, I found I was starting to get tired of looking at the same stuff everyday.

Then we got a flat screen t.v.
That helped for a little while.

Then I got tired of that being the focal point of the room and I made Jeff take it out.

But then I was left with a gaping hole above the fireplace, and though I knew what I wanted there, I had to be patient and find it. Because once I found it, the decorating possibilites would open right up.

So until then I decorated for Halloween with some lights and other Halloween-y stuff. Which I didn't take a picture of, so you'll just have to take my word for it. And it helped transition that gaping hole into something fun for the holidays.

And then it happened. Jeff found what I was looking for one day when he took a different way home. (fate, kismet?)

There, at a road side "antique" store, he saw probably a hundred old shutters.

Big, tall shutters. Large enough to fill that big empty space.

And the best part? While a little grody and dirty, they were already this beautiful turquoisy blue color.

The guy told us that they came from an old hotel (brothel) in Singapore. That creeped me out a little bit. So I've decided to pretend they came off an old plantation house in the south instead.
Ya with me?

So after scraping and pressure washing to get all the old loose, lead paint off, they were ready to display.


Stick a wreath on the front, or a large paper heart, or an American flag, and you have presto change-o decor options.

Don't you love it?

I do a little dance inside everytime I look at those shutters.

I love how they're not perfect. That they look old and weathered but that the blue is still so lovely and vibrant.

As my friend Daisy said "they just say "Amy"

I would have to agree.


What have you done with your mantel? Put a link in the comments so we can all check it out.

It could be a Producer day every day

My kitchen this morning at 10 am



So the Producer and his Project Manager from HomeMade Simple came by today to talk to us, meet us, answer questions and get a look at the house before filming in August.

I was pretty focused on making sure things were tidy and neat by the time they arrived at 10 o'clock this morning.

In order for this to happen I did the following:

I woke up at 7:30, I showered and got ready.

I had all the kids up at 8, dressed or showered and eating breakfast by 9.

From 9 - 10 I cleaned up the kitchen, vacuumed, washed the floor and went around tidying other rooms and getting things neat.

So by 10 A.M. my house was clean, my kids were dressed and fed and we were all ready for the day.

The reason I tell you this is that I realized this morning, that this could be my day everyday if I wanted it to be.

And if I wanted to add some exercise in beforehand, I would just have to get up at 6:30. Which is really not that hard when the sun rises at 4 a.m.

So why don't I do it? Why do I oversleep, let the kids oversleep, and then run around crazy trying to fit everything in and still end up not getting it all done?

I don't know the answer, I honestly don't. But I can say, for sure, that being ready for the day at 10 a.m. was AWESOME.

So for now, I am going to try and repeat this tomorrow. And maybe after 5 days in a row I'll get a gold star or something.

So have I found the secret for morning routine success?
Cuz this all sounds so simple, but I have yet to implement it on a regular basis.

But no more! I say. No more!

I'll let you know how long my new resolve lasts.

I'm giving it 5, 6 hours tops.

(Oh, and can I brag a little? They said my kitchen looked like a kitchen from a cooking show. Flattered? Yes I was.)

I really hope they don't hate it

When my great-grandmother passed away, I inherited several things that had been hers. An old rocking chair whose upholstery had seen it's day, that my loving mother had reupholstered for me, and a dresser.

Both things have followed me from house to house and across the country. The rocking chair resides in my bedroom so that it is safe from damage and snot and peanut butter being wiped on it.

The dress has been well used. It has held my clothes, odds and ends, toys, dvd's you name it, it has been well loved and put to good use.

But as time has gone on, I have desired very strongly to paint it. Someone lovingly stained it a nice dark walnut color, and I have lived with that for 10 years. But I am not really a brown person (whatever that means) and the need to revamp it finally won out.

Here it is in it's well loved, brown state. (I have yet to master the art of "before" pictures)

After priming, painting two coats and then distressing it, I am officially in love with my "new", old dresser.

I had an assortment of 6 nobs and drawer pulls from back when I was contemplating hardward for the kitchen cabinets. I figured I could use what I have. So I gave them all a light dusting of silver spray paint so that they would look similar enough, and called it good. I like the effect.

So now the real question is, will my Mom and Aunt Cathy, both whom I adore, be ok with this? I know this was given to me, but it was their grandma's. Have I destroyed the memories associated with the old brown dresser? Or will they agree with me that Grandma Mohar would just be happy to know I'm using it?

Hopefully I'll still be invited to family funtions after this. :)