Jumping In

So yesterday I announced that my husband has accepted the office make-over challenge that I proposed to him.  Today he was already visiting various hardware and big box stores looking at supplies and trying to decide how he was going to approach the cabinets...make them himself, or buy them pre-made but unfinished and then make them our own......I'm pretty sure after his travels today he has decided to make them himself.
Later this afternoon I caught him measuring and drawing and now that he has left for the car show with the kids I thought I would take a peak at what he was up to and this is what I found:

So looks like he's already started his rough layout/measurement/supply plan which is a good sign that he is into making this project into a quick work in progress.  I on the other hand have been thinking about colors, and what type of seating I want, tables, window treatments, lighting etc......all the fun stuff that gets me excited!!  So glad we're finally moving forward with a new project...

So I love to give you all some mystery clues as to what projects we have in store and unfortunately I couldn't make it to where I needed to go today, but I do have a clue for one of my next projects I hope to get working on soon....so here is the clue:

Any ideas as to the project and what do you think about the colors/pattern?

I will also tell you that I spent quite a bit of time in our guest room today coordinating fabrics for those pillows that I still want to make for the bed and chair......I think I finally figured out what I'm going to do but need a short consult with my mom (the master sewer and quilter) to see how I should go about doing what I want to do.   Hopefully I'll finally be getting that project on the way as well.

I LOVE FINALLY GETTING BACK INTO THE PROJECT GROOVE AGAIN!!! :-)  I just hope the trend keeps going and we don't repeat another little lull.  So keep inspiring us with your projects and we'll keep you posted with ours.......

Until soon again my friends......happy decorating!!

Challenge Accepted!

So the slump from weeks past has FINALLY ended and I have moved on with my old decor dilemmas and have dreamed up some new projects to start working on.  A fresh year, a fresh list of projects and boy do I have some big ones!!  So after some researching of my own I made some decisions about what I think I (and ultimately my husband who brings my dreams to a reality) want to tackle next......THE OFFICE (aka the toy room).  With three little ones under the age of 6 and grandparents who love to spoil them, we have a lot of toys.....no joke an unbelievable amount of toys!!  When we were searching for our dream house I wanted a place where all the toys could go and the kids could play and I wouldn't have to be stumbling over legos, Thomas trains, barbies, and hotwheels cars all day, and then when the day was over I could just close the door and magically the toys would disappear from view......ahhhhhh heaven!!!

So initially we had a blank canvas in the office.....so I brought in some of those cheap put together cubby things and some storage shelves and at first it was great.....but now I'm finding half their toys don't fit in the cubbies, and they've broken the cheap storage shelves (no shock there!).  In addition, we've added the couch and chair that once lived in our front "little living room" until we got new furniture, and are clearly too big for the office space......so now we seem to be back at square one where the toy room is just a place to put things with no organization and no room to really play in so it ends up out in the living room and the hallways and I'm doing just the things I dreamed I would be avoiding......ouch and ugh!!!

I am completely embarrassed to show you all this, but we all have to face our fears and just so you get an idea of the exact chaos I'm talking about here are some pictures of our toy room as it currently looks:

The even scarier part of these pictures is actually the room doesn't look half bad today, leading me to believe their rooms are probably unbearable :-(

So my new challenge is to clean this place up and get it organized!!  From day one I wanted a big built in book shelf along the back wall so I could have a place to store their 8,000 books (maybe that's slightly exaggerated....ha!), and neat baskets of cars and blocks, games, puzzles, art supplies (which are currently invading the morning room and pantry), and the like.  I wanted this room to allow the kids to play with their toys but also have comfy seating and a TV so the kids could watch their shows or play video games with friends, and where I could sit comfortably and play games with them or read stories, or watch TV if my husband is using the living room TV.  So this room would not only be a toy room but somewhat a den as well, and in the future an actual office or place to do homework etc.  We often refer to this room not only as the toy room but as the conference room as well since we often go in there and lock the door so we can actually hold an adult conversation or take an uninterrupted phone call when needed and drown out the kids yelling in the background. So in short I have high hopes for this room!!!

So this morning I finally proposed my ideas and plans to my husband and he has accepted the challenge and is already trying to figure out the details to make it work.  To give you a peak of what I've proposed here are some inspirational pics:

 I am in love with the bookshelves with the cabinets at the bottom and I think that is what we are most leaning towards so I can hide some bigger kids items behind closed doors.  So we shall see what happens in the next couple weeks.  Unfortunately my husband and I have some goofy schedules and with three little ones our projects don't get completed as quick as we would like but at least we have one in progress and in the works!!!  If you have any advice, ideas or inspiration we would love to hear from you......and we'll keep you posted of our progress!!!

Until next time.....Happy decorating!!

Stuck in the past

So in my last post I was in a bit of a slump when it came to our home projects.  It seemed I had a ton of ideas but was confused how to make them happen or find the right accents to make it work, or it would take too long, or be too costly, or I just wasn't even sure it was what I really wanted anymore, or even where to start with the idea.  Then I discovered pintrest, and as I'm sure happens to most pintrest newbies, I'm flooded with how tos and awesome ideas and lots of creativity, combined with all your creative blogs I was really inspired but somehow I found myself even more overwhelmed with what to do with our house.  I mean honestly people....I was actually trying to figure out how to put in coffered ceilings......a nice idea but too much work, too costly, and honestly I think a little crown molding will go a long way with the same effect over trying to put in a coffered ceiling!!

Then one day I was in the shower in the master bathroom, which by the way had me very frustrated in the decorating department, and I went to grab one of the two new solages (those goofy bath puff things) which were colored blue and pewter and I thought what a great color combination, they would be great in our bathroom.  As I was looking at these colors trying to figure how to incorporate them in our bathroom....poof...the light bulb went off....... it dawned on me my whole entire hold up is I've been stuck on the past!!!  The whole reason my bathroom was giving me such grief is I was trying to coordinate everything with the shower curtain we had from our hold house.....it looked awesome with the decor in our old house which had oil rubbed bronze fixtures, nice brown wood cabinets, brown designed counter tops, Venetian tiled floors and tan walls) but somehow I just can't make it work in the new house.  Well it never occurred to me before that IT IS OK to chuck the shower curtain and towels and go for something new!!!

I don't know if the change in me occurred after loosing my job last summer, or if it was because I was fearful the kids would destroy things, but for whatever reason I guess I just felt the need to hang on to what I have and try to work around it.  Well that style doesn't work in the new house but I was still trying to make it work......then I realized it goes beyond the bathroom---I seem to be doing it everywhere in our house....trying to make the living room and kitchen match with our 11 year old couches, trying to make the dining room match old wall decor we had from the old house, trying to make the kitchen work around our dishes that matched the colors in our old house, office work around hand me down furniture we had in our finished basement, trying to make the entry work around the floors that we upgraded (so I could live with it for a few years) instead of just letting myself say its OK to rip up the floor NOW, its OK to get new couches, its ok to buy new wall decor, or new curtains, dishes etc......I'm appreciative I have these things to get me by and I have loved them but just because I had them in our old house doesn't mean I have to live with them forever.....ITS A SHOWER CURTAIN AND TOWELS my friends they can easily and relatively inexpensively be replaced and should be replaced!!   Instead I just keep trying to make what looked beautiful in our old house look great in our new house and its not working!!  So needless to say the lull is slowly going away as I realize what I've been doing to myself.  

So I thought since the bathroom is where it all came to me, it should only be fitting that I get rid of the shower curtain thats been crowding my creativity and get something new......so alas the new shower curtain which promptly arrived yesterday (the lighting for the colors isn't that great in the pictures but note the blue and pewter tones)!!!  At first I wasn't sure if I liked it or not because it was so bold and bloomy....but it has really brought together some of the elements in our bathroom that were so bothersome and uncoordinated before.  I think with some new paint, towels, rugs, and decor it could be just what I wanted it to be.   My husband seemed pretty happy about the shower curtain as well and agreed this change was definitely needed!!

SO I'll keep you all posted of my breakthrough progress as I let go of my past and move forward with the new brighter future of our house!!

On a side note, I recently found a new blog site that I have been really enjoying called Seaside Interiors.  She does design boards for homes if you are interested in checking her out.  I came across her site when I was looking for some inspiration and noticed her home looks very similar to the Ravenna (I'm pretty sure it is)....anyways she's done some amazing things and I've found her to be quite an inspiration!!!  You can check her Blog out from the list of Blogs to the right of my page.  Happy Decorating!!