Movin' on in!

Today is going to be busy! I'm getting my hair done in an hour and that makes me feel like a princess for the rest of the day:) It's nice to be pampered some...especially when you are the only girl in a house of men (even the dog!). Men aren't much into pampering...in case you've not noticed.

Then, it's to the garage to work on Smokey Bear and finish up two of my other pieces. Hopefully, tomorrow or the next day I can get a couple of them on here to show you some afters! I'm not sure I'll ever tackle another smokey piece. Talk about a chore! I love a good challenge and this has been a good one, but extremely time consuming...which is not something I have any extra of these days. In fact this looks a lot like me today:

Moving along. I figured today would be a good day to take you on into the family room of my house. We're getting more comfortable with each other which means you can come sit down on the couch instead of just standing at the front door looking in. Notice I said sit, not plop. You can plop when I start showing you the hidden dust bunnies and Goldfish crumbs:)

This was the view from the front door when we bought the house.

On to the living/family room (no one can agree on it's name around here). When we bought this house, the absolute first thing I did was rip off that ridiculous looking molding seen here over the fireplace mantle. What in the world were they thinking?! This is a testament to how I am willing to TRY just about anything involving some level of skill with my hands. Chemistry or math, not so much:)

I'd never done sheet rock repair of this magnitude. There was a TON of joint compound slathering and sanding going on in this room for the next two days (and sneezing, coughing, and washing of hands)! God was good to me. You can't even tell it was ever there now:) I also had to lighten up this gold wall color. It is now the same color as the foyer above the chair rail...my "happy accident" color. Closet match would be Behr's Sensible Hue.


See how much better it is WITHOUT that "architectural detail"? That's not something that will usually come out of my mouth!

 See the toy pail there? Moroccan, solid hammered copper. I found it yard sailing last fall for $5.00! Sold!

This is a hard room to shoot with my mid-line camera. That's another thing on my "list" to upgrade soon.

The bamboo matchstick blinds were on clearance for about $5.00 a piece! The lamp was a brass Goodwill find I painted black years ago and the curtains were more of my remnant finds. Those green pillows on the sofa were what I impulsively matched for my dining rooms walls - so uncharacteristic of me to do that with color!



These colors are more accurate.

See the little white wine table and brown chair on the right? Those were my grandmother and grandfather's. The Barcalounger we bought (discounted floor model) for me to sleep in during the last stages of my second pregnancy. It's now "Daddy's Chair". The little table on the left was an outdoor plant stand I screwed a scrap piece round cutout on and spray painted white.

The little telephone table behind the sofa was my grandmothers and the lamp shades were clearance finds for about $5 a piece. I love this seagrass rug. I had it custom made about 7 years ago at a company in Charleston, SC for $600. It's 10'x14' with a thick urathane backing and it's been put to the test! Did you know you can steam clean these babies? I would know:) Three boys and two dogs have each made their presence known at some point.

That ottoman was my second attempt at furniture making (first was a round ottoman on casters). It's made from a board, foam bench pad, batting, remnant fabric and fence post caps! My kids LOVE this thing. I made it when it became obvious the glass topped coffee table was a disaster in the making with boys around:)  It's been laid on, jumped on (when they didn't think I was watching!), played on, etc. It's sturdy to say the least. That poor sofa was our first furniture purchase 11 years ago as newlyweds. It's been a work horse and has held up remarkably well. I still love the color of it. It's a olive khaki green and very versatile. It is time to retire it though. I need a microfiber one these days  - or I could do like "Ma" on Everyone Love's Raymond and just get me a plastic couch cover!

Loved that show:)

Hope you enjoyed your visit. I did! Let's do it again soon. Need any help getting off that sofa? It's a great napper:)

Miss Bee