Fabric love

I bought this fabric at my local Joann's over the weekend and I can't wait to show you what I'm going to do with it! And, because I am the unluckiest girl in the world, there wasn't enough yardage for what I needed. The best part of that... I had to get creative and I think the project is going to be even better!!!

Refreshed with a little rearranging

Are you a rearranger? I, for one, have it in my blood. My mom used to move the furniture around in our family room on a regular basis. So much so that you could walk down in a sleepy daze, attempt to plop down on the couch, and end up with your booty smack dab on the floor.

"Oh, what? You moved that couch?" My 16 year-old self hadn't noticed (even in the wee bright hours of oh, noon, once I had woken up).

Or, you go to set your glass on a side table that you were SURE was just there, only to have it whisked out from under you and relocated to the other side of the room. Seriously. This was a regular occurrence in my childhood home.

And, I'm proud of my mom for her furniture shuffling. It was a great way to freshen things up without spending any moolah. And, as she would point out, it kept the carpet looking nice because it changed up the traffic flow (no yucky tracks at momma's house). So thrifty.

So, getting back to my roots, I decided to move the furniture around in my Baby E's room last night. Its a small space with only 3 pieces of furniture. Her crib, a chair & ottoman, and her large dresser. Ahhhhhh. It feels so good to walk in there now. The weird thing is, we've only lived in this house for 3 months so I shouldn't be tired of the design, right? Wrong. It never was quite what I wanted and I was also worried about the crib being under the window (she's not standing yet, or even rolling over for that matter... I think the chunky monkey thighs are hindering her progress). I didn't want her grabbing the blinds for obvious reasons. She was also right under the vent and had a tendency to wake up when the heat kicked on or off. Here's the before:

standing in doorway (forgive the bad shot...forgot to flip on over

head light. duh. oh, and I'm not moving it back just to get a better pic. I love you guys, but come on.)

standing opposite the door, by the chair

And the easy, breezy, new layout:

standing in front of closet (previously empty wall)

crib (where dresser used to be)

view from doorway

Now I'm excited to get some color in there. Not in the form of paint. This is the one room that I actually like the bright white in, but with curtains and wall stuff-a-ma-giggy. Seeing these pics also makes me want to switch up the hardware on the dressers. Heard they had some good stuff at Hobby Lobby. Why, oh why do you have to be an hour away???

Have you done any rearranging that left your heart singing like mine? Moved any furniture from one room to the next? Let me know! I'd love to check out any pics on your blog, too!

I have good taste (and yes, I'm shocked)!!!

I'm not very brave when it comes to picking paint colors. In fact, our new house is the first time I've ever painted a wall of my own. When we moved in it was white, white, white. And not some pretty soft white, contractor's buy-a-giant-vat-of-it-and-put-it-everywhere white. Boring. And a little harsh to look at, if you ask me. So off I went to Sherwin Williams. I came home with over 40 paint swatches and after two days The Hubs and I narrowed it down to 2 different tan/beige colors for the majority of the house. I bought small samples, brought them home, and tried them out.

We went with these two colors in a satin finish:

SW Kilim Beige 6106

SW Nomadic Desert 6107

The top, Kilim Beige, is used in the living room (and is supposed to go upstairs throughout the halls and in our bedroom), as well as on the top half of the dining room wall. We used Nomadic Desert on the bottom half of the dining space and in the kitchen. The slight contrast in the dining room is perfect but I wish it was a little different in the kitchen. But, mostly I'm pretty pleased.

Shot of the dining room with our SU-WEET chair rail (still looking for drapes, then I'll post a before and after of this room!)

Lately I've been regretting not going with something a little more grey but overall, I was good with it. So, before we tackled the upstairs painting, I thought I'd check out the colors those wonderful folks at HGTV had used in the dream home to see if anything struck my fancy (because lets face it. Its. Beau.Ti.Ful). As I was flipping through the colors, lo and behold, they had used my sweet Kilim Beige in the Ski Dorm!!!

I am so excited and so, so, so proud of myself!!! I think I needed this confidence in my color choices to go on with the rest of my painting and choose a color for G's room.

I. Am. Awesome.

Inspiration!

Yesterday I saw some great inspiration for my house and I think its just what I need to get the ball rolling on a couple of rooms.

The first is from Hi Sugarplum! and is perfect for G's room. Her room is soooooo depressing right now and I can't wait to get started. She requested "bwue" walls so this is perfect!!!

lotusbleu2

pottery barn teen

The color scheme in the second will be reversed but I'm so excited to have some direction! I think I'll go a little more blue-grey than aqua but will achieve the same bold and wonderful effect. Her room serves as a guest room so I don't want it to look too baby-ish and because we live like renters, knowing we'll be moving on in about 3 years I like to keep colors pretty neutral. I REALLY want to get some sheets from PB Kids but they're so darn expensive. I've been scouring stores to find something that I like even half as much but to no avail. I do have a 10% off coupon so maybe I'll make it happen anyway.

Pics will be coming soon so pop back over and check out our progress!!! And I'll be posting about solving my curtain/drapery rod dilemma with a little help from Courtney at A Thoughtful Place.

I am my own tenant.

Because we move so often, I often feel like I live like a renter even though we own our home. Here are a few examples of things I did (or did not do) in our last house that made me feel like it was never really mine:

• kept wall hangings to a minimum (fewer nail holes to fill for the next guy)
• kept paint very neutral (I desperately wanted my first baby girl to have pink striped walls but instead they remained Sherwin Williams Rice Grain for 3 years)
• never planted a garden (apparently, a lot of people out there just want a blanket of boring ol' grass that requires minimal maintenance)
• leaving builder light fixtures in place (they're actually nice ones, just kinda boring to me)

Anyway, I know for a fact that the condition and neutrality of our last house is what made it sell in 1 day. Yes, 1 day (how's that for being sure it was underpriced!?!). There was a house across the street with a similar floorplan and WAAAAAY more upgrades (granite, hardwood, taller vanities, etc.) that never even got an offer and only had 2 viewings in 6 months. And they were only priced $5000 above us so I'm sure our buyer looked at it. BUT, it was literally painted a dozen different colors (ceilings were done, too). A dozen! In 1700 square feet! The colors were bold but well done but phew, the work to change it if it wasn't your style. I can't imagine. So anyway, I'm trying to step out of my comfort zone a little around here and be more bold in my choices. Not necessarily with many walls but maybe a couple. And, I'm thinking about doing some built-in-ish stuff in our toy room. We'll see. Oh, I did get wild and crazy and add chair rail to my dining room. Can't take that with me! What? You wanna see pics? Sorry. Can't do it. Still need curtains in there before the big reveal.

On a side, but related, note. Does anyone remember the show Home To Go that was on HGTV a few years ago. What a great DIY show that allowed the renters to take their newly crafted furnishings and decor with them. HGTV Canada, why do you mock me with your awesomeness???!!! I definitely miss the days before House Hunters was on every other hour (don't get me wrong, I dig House Hunters. Its so fun to snoop!).

Great blog...great giveaway!

Just a quick post to let everyone know about an AWESOME giveaway from Shelley over at House of Smiths. She's giving away a Silhouette machine! If you don't know what they are, go check it out because OH, the possibilities!!! I'm already imagining a cute vinyl wall design for G's room that looks like a pendant banner with the letters of her name cut out. And for E, her name in circles (to match her cutie polka dot bedding). The Silhouette website and blog have been my house-cleaning/bathing/eating nemesis today because I just can't believe all the neat-o stuff it can do...and I've only scratched the surface. Go enter (you can also buy one at a discounted price using a code from her site... which you'll need because I'm going to win)!

A throne for my new queen

Sadly, you may have noticed in the pic from my last post that our new mac-eroo, aka The Queen, is sitting on top of a folding table. Its sturdy and gets the job done but lets face it, a computer like this needs a royal throne! Not that I'll be getting anything soon considering that we made 3 major purchases the week after Christmas (computer, dryer, water softener) but here are a few worthy contenders that have caught my eye:

$99 - Draper desk (Target)

$159 - Linon Anna (WalMart)

$249 - Paterson desk (Crate & Barrel)

$299 - Parsons desk with drawers (West Elm) Its hard to tell from this pic but this is a VERY glossy white. Love it!!! It also comes in a mirrored finish (I. Die.) but not so practical considering that its home will be in the "toy room."

What do you guys think? The Draper seems like a great deal and I like the chunkiness of Miss Anna. I'm kinda wondering right now why I thought the Paterson was worthy of my list. And, umm, numero quatro is my definite favorite but unfortunately has the highest price tag. Its so sleek and sexy, unlike anything else in my house, especially after all the holiday gorging (except for her highness. And maybe my new washer and dryer but can they really be called sexy? They see a lot of baby poo these days). It makes me nauseous with excitement to think that a desk like that would ever want to live at my house. I usually need tons of storage-y cabinet space to hide all the junk but I am SOOOO over that in this case. I'll stash my stuff somewhere else! So let me know if you notice a sale at West Elm or an online coupon (or that you love me so much you've decided to buy it for me) so I can snatch it up and save a little moo-la.

Mac Daddy

We've done it! We are officially Mac owners. I'm so excited that I can hardly type. This has been a thought for a long time but there was nothing wrong with our old Toshiba laptop so it was definitely a future (way, way, way down the road) plan. Until, one fateful day (OK, last Thursday) Tosh, as I called 'em, went kaput. It was a little scary, especially considering that we had plans of buying a water softener AND a new dryer over the weekend, but was just the nudge (or huge push) that we needed to make this transition. I have used this computer for a total of probably 15 minutes in the past 2 days but what a glorious 15 minutes it has been! I promise to learn how to make the most of this puppy after I get Casa Carrie back in shape after all the holiday hoopla.

Here's a pic of my new favorite toy:

Any thoughts on what I should name her? Tosh was definitely a boy but this sweet little beauty is totally of the female persuasion.

And, you might learn a few other things about me from this pic.

1. I sew. Sort of. This is a Christmas quilt I'm working on (that was obviously not done on time). Hopefully I'll post some of my projects for you to see.
2. I'm an instruction manual reader. I haven't always been but in my oh-so-wise 30 years I've realized that if I'm going to spend 1000+ bucks on something (or even $50) I should use it to its full potential. Plus, I think its in my genes. My dad is an instruction manual junkie.
3. I LOVE legal pads. I prefer the full-sized ones but these little guys are more practical. I like lists (um, you're reading one right now) and checking off my to-do's on crisp yellow (or white) paper.
4. Another favorite, which I find even more exciting than a fresh sheet of lined paper, is a #2 pencil. I usually use mechanical because of the fuss of sharpening but really, good ole wood (don't be dirty) is my first love.

And, since this is my first post of 2011 I'll go ahead and through out a couple of resolutions (in no particular order):

• finish that quilt (my first attempt at one, by the way)
• learn how to use _______ (insert Mac's future name here) to the fullest.

How's that for simple (and hopefully easy to keep) resolutions. Losing weight and exercising, nah, not my gig. Besides, I have a lunch date with some sushi (oh, and a few girlfriends) tomorrow so I know I'd just be lying to you.

PS. Because of the new computer, the Christmas-y header might be up for a while. Forgive me, OK, I'm trying to figure this out.