Living Room Corner and Down the Hallway

July 16, 201520 Comments

My time off this summer is going by way too fast! I feel like I still have too much to get done! Remember the scrapbooking I was going to work on. Not happening! But I did manage to work on a couple of places in my house.

Back in February, I participated in a Finish-It-Up Challenge. One of the projects I worked on was to paint the trim in my hallway. I painted all the trim, plus 6 doors! Whew! That was a big job! I had hoped to get the walls done soon after, but it just didn’t happen. I finally found some light grey paint on the clearance spot at Walmart. I figured I would make it work. It still took a couple more months before I got the painting done, but it is finished!

I also got a new rug! I had been thinking about a sisal rug, but then decided I wanted more color since it is pretty dark in the hallway. My mom and I went shopping and found this one. I knew right away this was the one I wanted! Thanks Mom!

There was a part of the wall that was peeling off. Well, it was scraped and sanded and then sprayed with texture. Then I was finally able to paint over it. It is not anywhere near perfect, but it sure is better!!

I really like how this space looks!

While I was busy painting the hallway, I was chatting with Haley and asked what she thought of taking the dresser we just took out of her room and using it as a tv stand. She said, definately, yes! So in the middle of painting, I took a break and we moved furniture!

Here is the piece we took out! Haley started moving stuff before I could even stop painting and get the camara out! Yeah, this was from back in the day of very big tv’s!

After getting everything disconnected and moved out of the way, we took the old piece out. Boy, was it heavy! We could barely get it out the door! We managed to just get it out of the way and I said, good enough! Leave it there! It was much easier to move the dresser in!

We got this piece from our neighbors (thanks P & G) quite a few years ago. It has lived in both of the girls’ bedrooms and been painted several times too. We had just moved it out of Haley’s room about a month ago, but I really like it in here! We put movies and Wii games in the drawers. I added a bit of my beach decor too!

My last piece is this wonderful metal doggy I bought from Hobby Lobby! I have to have my little dog touches in each room!

I hope you enjoyed this little update and tour! Next week we will venture a little bit further down the hallway to my bedroom. I think it’s finally done (for now!)!

A Transformed Living Space

July 9, 201520 Comments

Hello everyone. I hope everyone is having a great week so far. Just remember, tomorrow is Friday, also known as Friyay!

But, onto the blog.

Since I live with three other girls and our apartment came furnished, I never really did anything with the living room. But after a year of living there, I realized how boring it was.

Before

Another Before

There was just a big empty space in the middle of the living room. Now, it was nice when we were setting up the Christmas Tree because then we could put all of our decorations in the middle of the floor to see what we had. But, other than that, it was just a big empty space in the middle of the floor.

Our entry way was crowded by the large Papasan chair and the shoe rack next to the stairs. If we had a lot of things that we were bringing in the door, we would have to be careful to not bang into one of these things.

Entertainment Center

This is the extent of the entertainment center in our living room. We have all our DVDs and some minions to keep the TV company. My roommates asked if the TV could stay where it was when I moved the living room around. I happily obliged.

This was the extent of our decorations in the living room besides the minions. And it still isn’t very decoratvie or creative. We couldn’t always see what games we had because they were facing the wrong way. There is even one hidden in the back on the floor.

So, after moving all the furniture by myself, getting some decorations and some input from my roommates, I was finally able to transform the living room.

TADA!

It looks much better! It looks a lot more homey and somewhere that I would like to relax in. None of the furniture is in the same place, so it took quite a bit of lifting. Now, it isn’t complete, but this is what I have so far. The couch and the loveseat switched places, the Papasan chair moved across the room, and the table in the corner became the centerpiece. It looks great!

I finally added some decor to the living room! I bought two of the blue chevron boxes from Hobby Lobby for $2 a piece and have them on the two tables in the living room, the bird and the candle came from Kirklands for a good price, and we already had the pots with who knows what in them and the basket. I’m trying to find mini disco balls to put in the basket. Any ideas where to look?

My mom printed out this page from another blog, put it on the clipboard, and gave it to me for my birthday. I thought it looked nice on the table.

The side table isn’t that exciting except that that we have two lamps, one of which is sitting on phone books because I couldn’t find anything else, and a decopauged candlestick. WWWWHHHHOOOOHHHHOOOO…

But, I did find a better way to organize the games. Since Mall Madness was the biggest, I put it on the bottom and went from biggest box to smallest. Taboo didn’t fit, so I placed it on the side as a book end. It worked out perfectly.

Now that the living room has been moved around, the entry way is much emptier and easier to walk through. Trust me, it is much easier to walk though this section with groceries than it was to walk through when the Papasan chair was there. The shoe rack is better placed by the door and the minions don’t feel as crowded with the shoes next to them.

Style en Vogue

Now this picture is going to go up over the couch once I get a frame. But I thought that you might enjoy looking at it. The living room looks so much better and much more welcoming now that the furniture has been moved around. I hope that you enjoyed my new and improved living room. Hopefully, my roommates like it as much as you do! 🙂

Navy and Turquoise With Just a Touch of Red

June 29, 2015June 29, 201510 Comments

Happy 4th of July week! It’s so great to see all the red, white and blue all over town and the blogosphere! It really puts you in the mood for fireworks, bbq and fun times! I did a very simple tablescape for the holiday. I don’t really use red in my decorating, so I kept it very light. But I DO use lots of blue and turquoise!! So that’s what I went with!

Blue, turquoise with just a touch of red

I still kept it coastal and beachy too with the driftwood bowl and glass floats and seashells. A few candles add to the atmosphere. I picked up these white and red metal plates several years ago at a thrift store and the small turquoise ones are from the 99 Cent Store. The woven place mats I just picked up at Goodwill last week. I was so excited to find them! They are so perfect for the beach theme! The napkins are just pieces of material I ‘borrowed’ from Lauren’s fabric stash. I love adding the red and white straws to the glasses! The red watermelon was the perfect accent! Do you find, that once you cut up some fruit, it gets eaten much quicker? My watermelon was completely eaten by that evening! I hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July! Please stay safe and enjoy time with family and friends!

Sum Sum Summertime Backyard

June 8, 2015June 8, 201519 Comments

It’s officially summer! The preschool I teach at is now in its summer session! No more curriculum! Yippee! Just fun stuff now, like water play and field trips. To celebrate, I invited the other teachers to come to my house for an ice cream social. Just a casual get-together to relax and enjoy each others company. Since I haven’t really shown you my patio yet, I figured this was the perfect opportunity! You saw a little bit with Haley’s graduation party, but this is how it looks most of the time. I still used a few of the decorations because they fit my color scheme too.

Our pretty patio!

I am searching for a great old table, but this folding one does for now. I added the new chairs I bought at Junk Days (I haven’t recovered them yet) and a few other wooden chairs from the house. I covered the table with a turquoise and white tablecloth and a runner of turquoise, blue and lime green. My husband didn’t want the tool tray anymore, so I snagged it and painted it! I added a little burlap, some seashells and a few other baubles.

Seashells in an old tool box tray.

Sunny Days!

Off to the side, I have a potting table my husband and I built out of old pickets from a neighbors fence. It took me about a year to come up with something to make, but I love this table! We have used it for so many things, but it usually holds drinks for parties. This party was just water, since we were having ice cream!

Potting table/drink station

I added some chrysanthemums I received from one of my students and placed them in my old wooden ice cream bucket from my grandma.

Love this bucket and the flowers look just right!

There is also a wooden star and a chalkboard sign letting everyone know this is the drink station!

Cool down!

I’ve collected a few hanging lamps over the years, so I hung them from a branch in the tree above. Next to the table is an old bike I have had for years. When the kids were little, I had their little seat on it and we went for bike rides. Miss those days! Here’s the other old bike I have. This was my dad’s when he worked at an oil refinery here in my town. He rode this trusty bike all over to get from one side of the site to the other. I brought it home last year, touched up the bright yellow paint, and display it in my yard. I love that this belonged to him and I can have a piece of that history.

Dad’s old Schwinn

On this side we have the seating area. I received the iron furniture from my mother-in-law, but the cushions were not my style. So I bought some outdoor fabric and recovered them. This is not as time-consuming as it sounds, because I use hot glue, no sewing involved. I showed how this is done here.

I love the sayings on this pillow. I sums up summer for me!

Birds that sing, butterflies, sunshine on shoulders, budding branches, warm breezes, blue skies, fresh air

This bowl contains rocks we have collected from the different places we have traveled to. I have the place and date written on the rocks. It’s a fun way to relive some of those great times together!

Rocks from our trips

This deck is right outside our back door. A friend helped Steve build it about 3 years ago, and it’s been wonderful. It’s a great place to sit and relax at the end of a busy day.

Our deck

The sun has gone down and now the lights are on. I love how it looks at this time of the evening. It has great ambience and it feels peaceful. The long day is done.

Relax under the lights.

This picture is a little dark, but you can see all our delicious toppings for our ice cream. Everyone brought a topping, while I supplied the ice cream. It was scrumptious!

Ice cream toppings

Well, the party is over, but I will leave you with this last photo. I picked up this broken chair and spray painted the seat with chalkboard paint. Now we can announce where the party is and when it’s time to go home.

Broken chair

I hope you all have a great week and a wonderful summer!

Coming Soon! Dressing Up a Dresser

May 29, 2015May 29, 20154 Comments

So, I’ve been a bit busy with work picking up. Since it is summer, and everyone is leaving on vacation, they drop their dogs off at my work where it is my duty to help take care of them. And even though I like having more hours at work, I now have to find a bit more time for the blog. Because of this, I am giving a sneak peak into what we will be showing off next week. It is nothing special, but it was a fun project for my mom and I.

We have some work to do!

We found this dresser for free on Craiglist and picked it up right away. We knew there were some problems with it, like mismatched handles and peeling paint and a broken drawer.

It’s taken awhile but I think we finally have a plan of what we want to do with it. We bought some new drawer pulls at the junk sale we went to last weekend and the drawer has been fixed. Now on to the fun part! We will let you know how it turns out! Stay tuned!