Baby/Guest Room Progess

Our little room off of our family room has been our guest room since moving here.  Well Alice lived in it for a while when we had Josie, a college student living with us.  But mostly its been for guests.  We’ve always wanted to paint it because its so small and very dark.  The walls just sucked up the space and the floor well, it was a hideous linoleum.  So Bob has been working his tail off painting the room and he finished it last night.  I found the deal of the century at End of the Roll in Rossville on a very thick cushy berber carpet.  Plus a really great guy from our neighborhood installed the carpet for us this morning, and at a great price too.  So this room in less than a week has been completely transformed.  We still plan to hang a ceiling fan, hang a real door (taken from a closet in the playroom=free!) and change out some old ugly outlets.  I also need to make curtains and find a nice bed spread or quilt.  But I can’t resist sharing the progress we’ve made in the room so far.  You’ll just have to wait in suspense until we finish it completely and put the furniture back.  Click here to see the progress.

Update:  I almost forgot to add the two cute videos I took of the kids playing in the new room.  Aren’t they the cutest?

Grandma Alice’s Quilt

 

              

   This quilt was a gift made for my grandma Alice by a dear friend of hers.  I think it might have been a wedding gift.  It used to lay on this same bed because I also received their guest room bedroom set.  I’m so thankful to have such a cherished possession of Alice’s.  One day I hope to pass this on to my Alice.  Now to get these guest room walls painted an actually make some real curtains!

Closet Update

Just in case anyone is keeping track, I did miss my deadline for my closet cleaning challenge.  We are actually almost done with it, but still need to paint and hang some peg board.  So I’m changing my new deadline to January 31st!  Aren’t you so relieved you have more time?  I am.  But I am already reaping the benefits of wonderful shelves floor to ceiling!  Its great. 

First Christmas Gifts

I know we just had Thanksgiving, but we won’t see my parents again before Christmas so we celebrated early with them yesterday.  I love Christmastime, love decorating for Christmas, and am always sad to take down the tree.  So we decorate the day after Thanksgiving around here.  I love that!  It helps me get more into starting up the advent box on the 1st and gets us all in the spirit.  We were decorating together yesterday and Caleb was so way into it this year.  ”I just love Christmastime!” he’d say.  And in response to me putting the angel on the top of the tree “Oh I love the angel, she’s beautiful” (spoken with awe and wonder)  And of course he ran to get his guitar and proceeded to sing, “its Christmastime, its Christmastime.”  I don’t think he could have delighted this mama’s heart anymore if he tried.  I love that he was so into it filled with little 3 year old wonder. 

We had a great time with my parents over this past week of Thanksgiving and enjoyed our little Christmas celebrations with them as well.  I got this great book as well as this one from them for Christmas and I’m really excited about both!  They also gave this book to Bob, which I’m really looking forward to reading after he’s done.  Yeah for great books! 

And because we celebrated early, you get to see one of my Christmas projects early too.  These will hang above my parent’s couch in the living room that I helped them decorate.  I’m so excited about them as they are my first attempt at some fabric wall art.  They are simple but suit my parents style and living room quite nicely.  I’ve had another idea for fabric wall art brewing in my head for a couple of years now.  It would be for above our bed, so we’ll see if I attempt that sometime now that I got my first fabric wall art under my belt.  I also didn’t have Christmas paper down from the attic yet so I used brown paper and strips of fabric to wrap their present.  I love how that turned out and may have found a fun way to wrap the rest of this year’s presents. 

                      

Decorating Bargains

I’m constantly looking for the cheapest way to decorate and organize my house.  I have a few favorite stops, depending on what I’m looking for.  Generally I’ll look in Big Lots, Target, Walmart, Lowes, and possibly Home Goods.  But I’d like to branch out a bit.  This is where you come in.  Where are your favorite places to find that great deal while making your home more organized, comfy or stylish?

Leave your comment indicating in what store you’d look for each item:
1.  Curtains
2.  Rugs
3.  Wall Art/Decor
4.  Storage shelves/bins
5.  Kitchen towels/linens
6.  Cool dishes such as pottery bowls/mugs/decor bowls
7.  Vases
8.  Furniture (shelves, tables etc)

Decorating Fun

We went to my parents this past weekend for labor day and had a great time.  They live in a townhouse and admit to being pack-rats.  I was calling mom, pack, and dad, rat!  So we joke and have fun with it.  Somehow I got into asking them if I could help rearrange their living room.  Rearranging the living room turned into buying new curtains, curtain rods, lamp and area rug.  Mom and I had so much fun shopping and I simply had a blast helping them put it all together. 

The new curtains make such a great impact.  We also bought an extra set of curtains to use for fabric on their end tables.  I cut the fabric, cleaned the glass top and voila, brand new end tables.  We rearranged so that their beautiful grandfather clock is an eye catcher as you walk into the room.  We put their not-as-beautiful stero cabinet next to the stairs tucked away in the corner.  That all opened up space so the piano doesn’t look as crowded.  I put a wreath together with some fall colors in it on the wall above the stereo, but didn’t get a picture of it.

Mom is so great with plants and has some beautiful ones in her living room.  So we highlighted those by the window on a little side table that we moved from the end of the couch.  Now they have a place to keep their current newspaper and a fun splash of green with the plants all together.  We also cleared out a shelf in the server for dad’s computer stuff so it no longer has to live propped up behind the checked chair.  We didn’t get a chance to rearrange anything on the walls, but I think mom and dad will be up for doing that themselves.  Mom is going to replace the black lamp shade with a lighter one too.  We had so much fun together getting punchy as we were tired in the evenings.  They were both committed to finishing the curtains and Dad was the champ with ironing the second set of curtains at 9 pm!  What fun we had.  Oh and thanks to Bob too as he did most of the kid watching while we were decorating like mad. 

I really had a lot of fun rearranging and helping that room to open up a bit.  I realize that this really is a love of mine.  I like doing a lot of things crafty and otherwise, but I just love decorating!  I don’t have any before pictures but here’s a couple shots of the after.  Don’t mind a little blurriness, its all I have.

     

 

My happy, beautiful parents!