Thursday, October 27, 2011

Operation: De-Crap and Make Pretty - Master Bedroom

Welcome to the first challenge of ...

 
We are starting with the Master Bedroom and I am utterly ashamed to say that mine is a disaster.  You see, I chose (for some unknown reason) to paint my room a sort of earthy eggplant color a few years back.  Seemed like a good idea at the time because I thought it was an interesting color.  Never mind the fact that I had nothing and knew of nothing I could pair with it to make it work for a bed room.  Now, I'm sure if you showed it to a designer they'd have a gazillion of ideas of what to do with it, but I've been clueless.  So - I have eggplant walls and bachelor furniture.  I say bachelor furniture because it's the furniture my husband had before we met - mis-matchy and one piece even still unfinished wood.  (My head has bowed down in shame while writing those words.)  

My closet is small, but luckily it is all mine as the hubs has claimed the closet down the hall as his own, yet so so messy because I have waaaayyyy too many clothes and no amount of organization to what is in it.  I know I could make good use of this space if I had a system.  So here are a few pics...please don't judge...I'm really a nice person!

When you first walk in you see my collage wall FAIL.  I used various frames I happen to have around the house and threw in some poems and notes that were special to us.  I somehow managed to overlap my mirror with one of the frames.  Don't ask me how.

Ok let me explain what's going on here (besides the awful quality).  You see, I bought that mirror for 5 bucks on Craigslist and hung it over my dresser.  Then, after moving furniture around our t.v. ended up on my dresser and I just never moved the mirror.  But this should give you a good picture of my clutter (since this is basically where I get ready everyday) and the eggplant.  Great.
 And here is my stencil wall.  I had this great idea not long ago to attempt to add some deminsion to the room, so I decided to make my own stencil and go for it.  I'm actually not too disappointed with it, except the gold color turned out a little more shimmery than what  I was going for. 
The curtains shown are just basic white curtains from ikea and there's really not much to say for my bed set up.  The hubs hates blankets (because he is a walking furnace), and I have a thing for vintage sheets, so I don't keep much of a spread.

To the left of my stencil wall are two more windows and the unfinished dresser I had mentioned.



And the closet.  This is primarily where the "de-crapping" is going to happen. As you can see I have an absurd amount of clothes, half of which I don't even wear.  And don't you love how I didn't even bother to move the fallen tote bag before taking the picture?  Oh, me. 


The top has a lot of potential for good storage but currently houses purses I never use, maternity clothes and a few bedspreads I don't love.


So now you see what I'm up against.  Please tell me you have a closet somewhere in your house that can rival mine.  Well now that I am completely red from embarrassment, I am off to de-crap!  Anything that I don't use, don't like, and can otherwise live without is going to meet mister trash bag until I get enough for a yard sale.  Ok.  Here I go, I can do this...  Who's with me?







Tuesday, October 25, 2011

A Major Operation.

Hello, loves!  Well I know I haven't posted a Blove or T.T.T.T., but for a very good reason.  I have embarked on a serious mission. 
I call it...
Catchy, eh?  Well it's huge for me because if you know me you know I'm kind of everywhere when it comes to ideas for decorating my home, so each room has a sort of confused feel to them because I can't seem to complete a full designed thought.  And don't even get me started on knowing how to keep up with all of the clutter and the cleaning that comes from having a small (and quite old) house!  I really do my best to keep a neat and pretty home but, and maybe you can relate to this, I feel like I'm cleaning non-stop yet still not getting anywhere.   There has to be a better way.  I admit that I need help (that's the first step, right?) and have figured out that a decorating dim-wit like me can only accomplish a beautiful home by emulating.  You see, I'm not Nate Berkus-y enough to whip up a gorgeous room on my own because I understand there is a lot of factors that makes a room great - texture, depth, color palette, symmetry (a-symmetry).  Yet I know a great room when I see it, and some styles resonate with me and some don't.  So, I accept the fact that I must emulate (while also adding in my own touches here and there) if I'm going to get anywhere.  So that takes care of the decorating.


I'm also quite organizationally challenged.  I don't know if a very organized person can understand this, but it's literally like my brain is not hard-wired to know the neatest way to organize a group of anything.  Perhaps it's a lack of discipline or practice, I don't know, but I'm working on it.  Again, emulation.  And let me tell you, I have found the BEST person to emulate.  She's my very new best friend, actually (though we've never met.  or talked.  or communicated in any way.).


Meet Jen from I Heart Organizing.  She's brilliant, and if I were in any way polytheistic I would say she was the god of organization.  The girl oozes neatness. I stumbled across her blog and really it's what fueled me to start my mission.  I strongly encourage you to check her out and mooch off of her great ideas!


So enough word vomit, let me show you the challenge.  I will be overhauling my house room by room, each going through the same process:


1.  De-crap - purge the room of anything that is not useful, pretty, or necessary and either sell, donate, or toss.
2.  Streamline - Organize said room so that it is neat and functional.  Everything must have a "place"!
3.  Make Pretty- decorate each room so that it represents my family well and is inviting to others.

And one quickie little side note:  Although I have my husband's full support to turn our house upside down for a few weeks, it still doesn't change the fact that we are not, in fact, made of money (I am a stay-at-home-mom after all!).  So, I'm going to have to use my cleverness-ness and enlist the help of Craig and his list (get it?) and yard sales to accomplish some things, while other things will have to wait.  No biggie, I'm patient.  But the biggest help to my family is to get us organized which, believe it or not, is free! 


Sounds do-able, right?  I'm very excited and I really hope you'll join in!   

First up - we're going to master The Master Bedroom - because that's where all the magic happens.  And let me tell you, you're not going to feel very "magical" if you can't stand the sight of your room.  Not acceptable.  Tomorrow begins the De-Crap phase... who's with me?!?  And because we all can benefit from a little accountability (me most of all!) I made a button!  If you join in, either in part or in whole, show it off!  Maybe it will encourage someone else to take back their home! (I totally wanted to raise my fist while writing that.)  See you tomorrow!


                                                             





Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Mommy Fix: Footie Grips

If you know me, you know that I love me a good garage sale.  A few weekends ago I scored some great finds for my little man including several pairs of footie pjs, just in time for the tiny blip in Florida weather we call winter.  They were in great shape, but when my new little walker put them on he was slipping and sliding all over our hard wood floors.  The grip had been warn down.  That's when I remembered this post from I Am Momma Hear Me Roar.

So, one trip to Walmart...

a bottle of puffy paint and $0.97 later...


 
Voila!  New grips for the little guy's cute footies!



He was rearin' to go!



No more slipping for this rock star, the puffy paint really works!  A few things you should know if you do this:  The paint takes a while to dry, like over night.  Also, the bottle of this particular paint says to turn it inside out when you go to wash it.  Other than that, easy peasy!  Have fun, and maybe splurge and get more than one color (unlike me). 


Don't you just love easy and inexpensive fixes!  Hey, if you try it out yourself, let me know!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Backlogged.

So. Backlogged with projects that I haven't shown you.  So today we're going to pretend like it's June 20th (the day after Fathers' Day) and I'm so excited to show you what I gave my hubby for his very first Fathers' Day.  (Actually, this is one for the bloopers.)  I had everything planned.  I worked so hard in Photoshop, slaving away to design the perfect shirt for him.  Everything was great, I got my screen printing supplies together, situated the shirt, pulled the ink across the screen and...



Can you see what's wrong with the picture?  I loaded the screen the wrong way.  Ugh... I was so disappointed and out of time so this is what he got.  Luckily he has a great sense of humor and loved it!  (I did end up making him another one but he tends to rock this one more).

  
{He's so cute.}  So that was project numero uno.  I'll be back to show more along with some fun tutorials!



Totally Tubular Tunes Tuesday.

This week's T.T.T.T. is from one of my favorite Christian artists, Nichole Nordeman.  Unfortunately I can't say that I am in love with the "Christian music" genre as a whole because most of it is, what do they say?  a mile wide and an inch deep?  Nichole's songs, however, have substance to them.  This song, You Are Good, is off of the worship album, Sing Over Me.  There isn't an official video for it, but this is a pretty one.









I hope you liked it.  Have any songs that inspire you?  I'd love to hear about them!



Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Totally Tubular Tunes Tuesday

Today's T.T.T.T. Is particularly close to my heart because I am featuring the group that sang the song that my husband and I danced to at our wedding. The group was known at the time as Jump Little Children, but have recently shortened their name to Jump. What I like about Jump is that each song feels as though it's wrapped in nostalgia. Even if you don't have any actual connections to a song,  it has the feeling as though it's traveled with you, tugging at you when you hear it. That's what I think at least.

This song is called Mexico. I also threw in the song we danced to at our wedding, By the Way they Dance, underneath. If you're in the market for a great wedding song definitely check it out - I'm totally not biased! (p.s. The Mexico video is not an official Jump video, it's one that a group of friends put together to say goodbye to a friend leaving for Mexico. I thought it was so beautiful.)








I'd love to hear your thoughts about any of the songs I've featured. If you have any songs or groups that really inspire you I'd love to hear about those too!





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