A Work in {Progress}

I'm making progress, {slow} progress, on my new craft room & I thought I'd share one of the things I've been working on, even though it's not exactly finished yet. Take a look at my happy new desk!

The hubband was very {helpful} in the assembly, as he doesn't quite trust me with saws just yet. ;) To make the desk I used two small shelving units (made by Closetmaid) from Target. We already had one, so I just had to pick up one more ~ it was around $20. Then I ran to Lowe's and picked up a 24-inch hollow core door for $19, and that is my desk top. The hubband ran a 2x4 along the wall that the desk is on, and then put screws through the desk top to secure it. The hubband also forcefully removed the backing to a small light that he had attached to the wall. It had been next to the tinier of the tiny people's bed. When he removed it, he also removed part of the wall. Nice, eh? And he managed to do more damage to the wall with his drill while he was securing the desk top ~ so I had to run back to Lowe's and pick up a quart of paint so I can touch up the walls. Luckily, I'm the kind of dork who remembers the name of paint colors.

So there's the desk. I do need to stain it and apply a coat of poly ~ but the hubband has been so busy with work that he has really needed my help, which means I've been too busy actually {using} the desk to finish it properly.

Things kind of {echo} in the room right now ~ there isn't enough softness ~ so I do need to pick up a rug to help with that a bit. I'm also on the hunt for an inexpensive padded stool (preferably with a back) to replace the stool I'm currently using, and I have a stuffed chair that I'd like to move in....and reupholster. And I have a few projects in mind for organization...and decoration...and such... Trust me, when I do something, you'll know it! ;)

　

Another Project Finished

You might remember a while back I posted about a dresser that was free to a good home. Here is the {before} pic of said dresser.



I finally got around to doing something with it! I debated long & hard about what to do and where it would go ~ but I really couldn't figure out a place in our house where it was needed and would fit nicely. As luck would have it, tranforming our 3rd bedroom into my {craft room} meant that I needed something for storage of crafty-type things, as well as something to put a TV on, so... I painted her white and spray painted the knobs a lovely hot pink chosen by the tiny people. Here's the {after} pic!



I have to say that I'm not lovin' the knobs. The spray paint didn't take to them all that well. They'll do for now, but I will be on the lookout for replacements in the future. The TV is now happily sitting on top of the dresser, and the next craft-room-related {project} is well underway.

How's that for a cliff-hanger? ;)

Ch..ch...changes

When your house is a whopping {1000} square feet & occupies 4 people and 2 dogs, well...let's just say that having some personal space is a necessity if everyone wants to maintain a level of sanity. While both of the tiny people had their own rooms, and the hubband was able to disappear to the basement, his office, the garage, etc., {I} had no space that was really my own. Even the bedroom was being invaded by the tinier of the tiny people in the middle of the night.

So, I decided to employ guerilla tactics and take back some space for {me}. Call me selfish... First, I talked the hubband into letting me buy bunk beds for the tiny people. A whopping $160 at IKEA and a couple of hours of work and {voila}, the girls are now sharing a room. Can I get a {WOOT!}. Next up? Decor. I moved them into the room previously occupied by the not quite as tiny person. Her room was already pink, which the tinier person was just fine with ~ I just had to make them coordinate. When we talked about the move ~ even before we bought the beds ~ the tinier of the tiny people said she wanted her bedspread to match her sister's. This is the bedding in question...

Now, I {love} Land of Nod ~ really, I do ~ but I just couldn't stomach spending $60 on a duvet cover. The only reason the not quite as tiny person had this bedding was b/c my MIL bought it for her as a gift. I started thinking about it and decided that there was no reason I couldn't figure out a way to make that duvet cover into 2 duvet covers. So while I was at IKEA, I picked up 2 plain white flat sheets....for $2 each. I also grabbed a synthetic down comforter for the tinier of the tiny people for $14. Then, I trimmed a bit of off each of the comforters (b/c I knew I was going to lose some fabric from the duvet covers when I seperated the front from back...and there's not a lot of extra width on bunk beds to begin with) and sewed them closed. Next I laid out the plain white sheet & one half of the comforter, put right sides together and pinned around three sides, and sewed the new, plain white back, onto the existing flowered print. And there you have it....two bedspreads out of one. I love it when a plan comes together.

I'm not gonna lie, the transition to a shared room has been rough. The tiny people have been staying up {waaaay} later than I'd like, and there has been a lot of coming out of the room over and over again ~ but I didn't anticipate it being an easy over-night switch. I'm just hoping that they'll be over the excitement and novelty before school starts again.

The {really} exciting part of all of this is that the tinier of the tiny people's old room is now {vacant} and ready to be used for whatever I darn well feel like. ;) I've already started moving stuff in. More to come soon!

You Won't Believe It...

I've got about 16 projects on the brain right now. There have been a few pretty significant changes in our little house over the last few days ~ there's just a lot going on around here and my mind is just {swimming} with all of these ideas. In fact, this should be a week chock full of posts from me if all goes as planned. First up? Something for the master bedroom.

There are lots of changes I'd like to make to that room (paint...window treatments...finish the floor...) but I was thinking along the lines of some throw pillows for the time being when I went to the linen closet to look for my leftover burlap. What I found is a little crazy. See?



That brown fabric on the {left} is my current duvet cover, which we've had for a few years. The floral print is a flat sheet that belonged to my parents....it's a solid 26+ years old. The orange is leftover from the curtains I made for my kitchen a few months ago. The blue is a sheet set my MIL gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago. And the cream and tan print is the same fabric that I used on our headboard. And they all {coordinate} darn close to perfectly. What are the odds...seriously.

I'm feeling some throw pillows. And I think my pretend BFF {Sarah Richardson} would be proud. ;)

Homework

I apologize (again) for my long absence (again) and promise (again) to try to be around more. Our 4th of July weekend was a busy one. My mom was here for the weekend, which was beyond wonderful. We managed to get the entire front garden planted ~ finally ~ as well as some pots for the back yard. And....the really {big} project ~ we painted the front porch.

The reason you're looking at only the floor of the porch in the pics is because I wanted to make a quick-ish point about color. (And I should add, I'm not thrilled with the way the paint color looks in the after...it's actually an almost-exact match to the color of the mortar.)

The hubband & I have lived in our home for 10 years, and in that time we came to take the color of our house for granted. It's grey brick. That's one of the things we don't {love} about our house ~ we both agree that the red brick homes in our neighborhood are so much nicer looking ~ but brick is brick and we can't see painting it, so we've agreed to live with it. However....as we learned when the hubband came home with a pre-mixed gallon of grey porch paint, there are a whole lot of shades of grey.

What it comes down to, really, is that our house is more of a brown-ish grey than a pure grey...and neither of us really realized it. Then one day, as I was walking through our neighborhood with one of the dogs, I started really {looking} at the other grey brick houses. What were they doing differently that I found really appealing? A few jumped out at me right away because they went straight to black trim. WOW. Definitely not subtle and {way} too drastic for me. There are a few with plain white trim and red front doors. Hmmm. And then I noticed a house with a second story addition ~ and the siding on the addition was matched to the brick ~ and the siding? Well, it wasn't grey! It was more of a taupey-ish color. DUH!

Needless to say, my tip for the day is for you to do the same thing I did. If you're not thrilled with the exterior of your home, do a little homework. Stroll through your neighborhood ~ or even take a Sunday drive ~ and take note of what other people have done. Staying in your own neighborhood means that the styles of homes will be more similar to your own, and in our case, the brick most likely came from the same truckload. ;) You might just notice some things about your own home that you've never noticed before!