Before and After so far...

A Before:

So it's a little like a body-for-life before-and-after where during their before photo, they stick out their gut and avoid the sun for weeks prior.... pictures on ground, unfinished paint in corner, but it's the only picture I could find of my family room "before" since I've never loved this room and therefore ONLY took a picture once to show my paint job.

Here are some more afters---

With the new sectional from Sofacraft, the new bamboo shades from overstock, and two options for rugs.... the first, the Isola Bella rug half off!! at Anthro. Sorry just looked.... think they're gone.

The second, a zebra hide from ebay! I searched for one of these forever finding nothing that looked decent for less than 400.... and then finally tried ebay... tons for like 200. And it's beautiful. I love it. But I love both.... they both have an alternate home in the new girls or baby's room...

which looks best in the family room???

And this was a craigslist find that I put new gold ring pulls on.... I think I plan on putting them on all of the drawers even thought it only came with pulls down the middle three. Jenny shared these pulls on the Little Green Notebook... I LOVE them. Did you see this post for the ikea "hack of all hacks"--- gorgeous. I kind of want them on every drawer in my house now.

Still plenty of work to do... something over the tv.... I planned on cheap ikea bookshelves on both sides of the dresser for storage, decor, baskets, ugly tv stuff... but not sure how that will fit with the plant.

Speaking of plant, still need to paint the pot white or buy a new one at Ikea.

Wish I had hard wood floors--- don't we all. But I decided even while completely unnecessary, I'm going for rugs over carpet--- because the patterns make me oh so happy. Even atop ugly cheap, stained, carpet. And maybe they'll hide some stains.

AND--- I'm dying to build some simple white mantel over mine to cover all the tile... I love these: The top left seems the most realistic... and then I might have to paint my mirror white... I LOVE the one on the top right if you look close---and of course I love the bottom left that my sister had built... hmm....

Some image inspiration- warning, I'm all over the place

I want to live there. Too much to ask?

I've been committed to growing my hair out for the past several months... which is why I'm DYING at it's length and shape right now. I have images like this girl above that keep me motivated. Since I'll look JUST like her if my hair is long.

This is the problem--- there's all these gorgeous heads of long hair floating around in magazines and blogs and real life--- but will I just waste all of this time suffering medium hair just to end up looking like I did when I was 13?

Nice. Someone put it on facebook. I wish I still had those jeans. Lacy, is that you in back with your hair on top of your head? I wish I had those jeans too. :)

And then I see photos like this one and think---- forget it--- short hair can be SOOO cute too... and it's SO much easier for me to do and actually wear down...

I have a hair appointment TODAY. Pretty sure I'm going to suffer it a bit longer and see how I feel after some of the baby weight comes off. What's the point right now anyway?

That's my attitude. Poor Ross.

And on a totally different note--- I swore to myself I wouldn't paint another ounce of blue in the this house.... and then I painted my family room blue and swore it again. And now I'm thinking maybe the girls should have this accent wall in their coming-soon big-girl room. Don't worry, I would get rid of the purple.

But maybe without the perfect wrought iron bed frame and perfectly textured white bedding it will just look like a fiesta. Who knows.

Oh um.... I ordered a new custom sectional from this place yesterday. With that, these new bamboo shades, my new craigslist dresser-turned-media, a couple of book shelves from ikea, and one of these fiddle leaf figs (the big green plant):

I ordered it (never could find one and just thought of that option!) and am picking it up today at Home Depot!

I plan on having some good before-and-afters here in 3-6 weeks!

Anyone know where I can find Roman Shades like these?

I LOVE them. This is why I need to learn to sew.

Usually I look at some blogs, do some dishes, and eat some peanut-butter malt balls...

But today, during Mila's nap, I did this:

BEFORE:

sort of AFTER:

Well-- I couldn't get that corner behind the armoire until tonight when Ross got home and moved it for me, but besides that--- it seriously took like 2 hours. Why does it seem SOOOO daunting? It felt so much more productive than my.... usual routine.

Now---- unfortunately with the blue, there's like 5 more projects that popped out that NEED to be done. But I like it. The whole room was just WAY too tan... my couch is greenish, the blinds that came with the house are brown, the armoire's brown---- too much warmth. I was burning up in there. And blue is the only way I know how to fix that--- :) So there you have it. One more blue room in my house-- and I already feel so much happier in there. I'll try to remember to snap an "after" once it's really put together. I think I'll spray the two frames on the left white, move the armoire upstairs and work on getting some low, white-lacquered something-or-other from ikea for the tv... oh and build some simple white hearth to cover that ugly tile. :) Easy peasy. Hah.

Can you paint tile? That I can do. Would it just look like ugly WHITE tile?

Just in case any of you local bloggers are interested...

We're dejunking our garage.... and selling this stuff on Craigslist. I just figured I'd mention it here too. Lawn Mower- $100 --- Bought it 3 years ago, only used it for about a year before we gave up (sick of killing our yard) and hired a gardener. Ross freshened it up the other day and made sure it was running well.

Dreamer Design Jogger: $75-- used it when Sophia was a baby--- been storing it ever since. I think that means I don't need it anymore. Nothing's wrong with it. Originally $260 or so.

Anyone want that chandelier that came with the house? It's free.

Anastasia Da Vinci Crib- espresso- $100

We sold this crib to a friend a while ago and she changed her mind because there was a little bit of damage to a small piece of the hardware.... I wish I could explain it better, but I'm honestly not really sure. I'm too lazy to figure it out, so we're selling it for $100. We don't have the directions to set it up, but I'm sure you could google it, and fix whatever the problem is, if you're up for it. It always worked great for us, but a little wood piece must have broken in our garage or something. We only used it for Sophia.

These green Pottery Barn Curtains. Set of four panels- $150-- Laurel green velvet, 96 inch length, 50 inch width, great condition. New ones go for about that much per panel. Here's the link to some similar.

Just thought I'd put it out there!

My House

I have revolving-door syndrome. Self-diagnosed. Or husband-diagnosed I should say. He says our house is like the golden gate bridge. By the time they finish painting it, it's time to start back at the beginning....

I decided I'm not documenting it enough since I like to be able to look back and see the phases our home has been through. Every phase stirs up certain memories... like when you see a picture of yourself with different hair and remember a whole set of memories that match it. I have house-phases. I like change... I get stir-crazy... and unfortunately... I am a big fat sucker for a trend.

So here are some photos of my house... a couple of collage projects, a couple of random new nick-knacks that are making me happy, and already a dining-rug change. One before photo is all I could really come up with... so here goes.


BEFORE

AFTER (but I must admit there were definitely several in-between phases. So maybe I should just say "First six months of moving in" and "Now." Same blue on the walls... scary what bad editing can do. I guess I'm also exposing "editing skills, then and now."

Just in case you're curious like I usually am. The curtains and all of the white frames are ikea... the others are random thrift-store and crazy glass-less clearance from homegoods. Mirror, white pillows, and lamp are homegoods. Chair is a reupolstered thrift-store find-- so is the globe ($6!). Coffee table, side tables, and couch are hand-me-downs from my generous sister, Melisa. A new etsy poster that caught my eye. Though I must say, I've been spending a lot more time in Photoshop these days and now I'm thinking.... how hard could that be???
(Still need to fill the little black and bone frame from cost-plus. Yellow... thing... is from homegoods.)

Remember how I JUST showed you my new ikea rug? I really liked it... but for some reason I just wasn't loving it in my house. I'm all about color, but the orange just wasn't working for me or something. I found this one on overstock (well really I saw it on the Little Green Notebook where I was directed to overstock), that reminded me a little of this one.... (different I know... but it reminded me), but for much cheaper... and I did it.

Back to ikea.

This is just a little $10 Cost Plus find that I LOVE. I wish they had a big one for my front door. I wish I had a before of this... maybe you remember it in the background of some old photos... but it was a blank wall for a while... then it had 4 frames for a while... I finally got a whole collage up before my family came out for Thanksgiving. Oh what a little time crunch will do. I think the whole thing only took me an hour and a half or so when I finally got around to it. And just a year and a half of not getting around to it before that.

Remember this lovely chair I found at Angel View that I vowed to reupholster back in... ummm.... August?

I did it! Well, if it counts even though I haven't put any kind of trim down to cover the staples yet. And perhaps you can see some of the natural wood where I botched the paint job because I couldn't figure out how to keep the batting down once I'd taken off the ugly fabric. Should have kept it on. I have a bit of a half-way personality... and since it looks done from afar, I'm afraid it might be a long while before I fix those little problems. But anyhoo... one project down! Just 6 months later.

Holy cow--- that's the first time I counted out the months. Sad. Notice there were two? Maybe Ross's ultimatum that the second one is tossed if I don't have it out of his garage in the next 30 days will light a fire under my butt.

And here are a couple of other newbies in the house I've meant to blog. The light fixture from ikea I got a while back and panicked that it was WAY too big for the room. Then Ross put it up and I think I dig it. The rug? A vast improvement from the shaggy old ikea one that left hair balls all over my house, but not the yellow I've been envisioning, so I'm not sold yet.

Can't find any before pictures. I wish I'd done the whole "tag" thing on my posts like everybody else.

DIY Play kitchen that makes my heart go pitter patter.

Holy Cow... did anyone see this on Design Sponge? I was wishing that Santa had decided to bring Mila a kitchen for Christmas since she's obsessed with the one in Sophia's class room. But whether he (we) was (were) lazy or cheap, we're not sure, but no kitchen. Now I see this DIY kitchen from an old night stand... and I know I could NEVER figure out how to do it... but oh if I could--

So much room for creativity! Isn't it darling? Maybe some day when I find myself with so much extra time, I need a new hobby. Hah.

HELP!

I need opinions. Have your voice heard. Get out and vote.... or just do it right here in the comment section. pretty please?


Which combination do you like?



1.





2.
3. 4.

5.6.

7. oops... forgot this one in my original post. I know you've had enough of the fabric... but simple solid.. with dark wood... ? I thought making them all visual like this would help me... I think I'm more lost than ever!

Phew. That's all for now. Any sure winners??