Getting it together...

The blog progress is moving slowly...all in good time...I have too many jobs and I have to realize my limitations as a mother, wife, teacher, designer...ugh the list goes on.  I have many hats throughout the day and finding time for space these days is a great priority.  Finding time to blog along with everything else is proving to be a challenge.  This was one of the scary thoughts I had when I debated starting this.  But design is my joy and this will be used to express that joy not another "to do".  I have made some progress on some projects and am so excited to share them.  

Bar In Progress

 Dresser Before

 Dresser After

I was dying to use these circular O'verlays and since the top two drawers had a different style drawer I decided to get rid of them and add the shelf.  I removed the drawers, took out all the drawer parts and added a wide beadboard as the shelf.  I think the paint totally transformed this dresser.  Next I need to accessorize the table.  

I got lots of ideas...

I have lots of ideas but because of manpower and budget it's going slow but here are some of the ideas floating around my head these days for a couple of rooms in my home and some I designed just because I get so inspired by fabric.  

Exterior new entrance

So here is the entrance from the outside.  Still lots to do!!!  We have to finish the columns with stone, a walkway and some landscaping.  

The E Monogram is a decal from www.decalmywall.com and is done in etched glass.  

It was tricky to install but I think the result was exactly what I wanted.  

Mudroom dreams!!!

Ok so we have been living with the addition and new entrance/hallway for about a year now and this is how it looks:  

Yikes I definitely need some shoe storage!!! And that is the corner for the future lockers/storage, etc...

Woodwork would be nice!!!

Entrance to our part of the house on the right and stairs to Mom's on the left.  

I could use a table here for keys...and maybe a couple of benches/ottomans to tuck underneath to pull out to put on shoes.  

Now I am on the look out for the perfect locker/bench design for the space.  And of course I have to get my husband to build it.  

Before the addition...

Dining Room/Bar In Progress

Ok so pics of these rooms are temporary...I need a camera but I would like pics up so that if I start to make any changes I have before pictures...I am really bad about making sure I have before pics before I start to rip apart a room to redo it.  So here is what I have so far.  More and more to come...

Master Bedroom Before

Living Room Before

Kitchen before

Kitchen with backhall/mudroom

Walls Behr Tea Cookie 

Kitchen

So the kitchen is not going to be changed in the near future but the cabinets have yellowed and almost 8 years ago Kraft Maid did not have a creamy white painted cabinet so I had to go with the bisque and they were too dark for me before they yellowed.  So I would like to paint the cabinets and then paint the walls. Pics are hard to take in this square enclosed kitchen but I did my best with my amateur iphone.  This year I would love to make a nice camera a part of my blogging must-haves...

Kitchen In Progress....

Office (before it was our backhall/mudroom)

Office (in progress before frame hung)

Office (green looking a little bright in this pic)  

Wall color:  Benjamin Moore dill pickle 2147-40

7 year itch...

Ok so the marriage is doing great but the house....that's another story!!!  We remodeled this house the year we were married...(and I was newly pregnant...not the best combo) but we are going on our 8th anniversary and now our house is falling apart.  I started some redecorating projects because I am ready for change and meanwhile the faucet in the kitchen leaked all over the kitchen cabinet and down into the basement.  UHH!!!  So last weekend instead of painting the furniture in the living room as planned I went shopping for a new faucet. Here it is:

I loved the old Kohler Vintage faucet...it had a lifetime warranty but we have to order all the replacement parts in order to fix it...no offer to replace it was made by the company.  So in the meantime this is the faucet...I am not instantly in love like I was with my other faucet but it may grow in me.  If we get the other one fixed I may move this one to the future laundry room or the old one will make it's new home there.

And adding insult to injury last weekend, the toilet in the 1/2 bath doesn't flush!!!  Ugh!!!!  Not how I want to spend $159...that could be paint or curtains or pillows.  So I am trying my best to keep from having to replace that this coming weekend but we may be getting a new toilet.  I really will finish my living room project I swear...the itching continues....

Other home and other body envy...

Sometimes it feels like we are trying to make our homes become something they aren't and also trying to make our bodies something they are not.  I have always been short and had an athletic build.  I have tried to fight that most of my life.  When I work out I actually get bigger...clothes get tighter.  The one and only way I have ever had to reduce the size of my body is starvation and atrophy.  Not healthy!!  Why can't I embrace what I have?  Why do I envy the long and lean look when I am short and muscular.  I bet some of those tall women wish they were short and athletic.  We never want what we have!!  Well at 37 years old I think I am beginning to change...I am ready to embrace what I have.  I want the feeling of strength and health much more than I am concerned with the overall size.  I have lived through many years of anorexia and deprivation to get to this point.  To get to the point that what I have, that what I am is ok...acceptance is key!!!  Tall women you rock!!  Short women you rock too!!!  Just think someone out there wishes they could have your body so enjoy it!!!!

Now as for the home...I feel we do similar things with our homes.  We have other home envy...Just like we have other body envy.  We look at another house and think that we need to have a bigger house or a bigger kitchen, more bathrooms.  Every house has good parts and not so good parts and we need to learn to love and work with the whole house and most importantly the house we have.  Don't try to make it something it isn't but make it the best most beautiful house it can be and you will love it!!!  I post lots of pics of other homes not to create home envy but to inspire you to make the most of what you have and maybe play up a great space with something you are drawn to in the pics you see.  But if you have a country, salt-box colonial play up that with what makes those great instead of trying to make it into a four square city home.  Key again is acceptance of your home and look at it's character and see what would make it unique.

We live in our bodies and homes for only a short time!!!  Live it and Love it to the fullest!!!!

My Intentions for 2012

1.  Enjoy life.  This year I would like to begin a new chapter where the joy I have goes into work and play.  The stress of working more...of scheduling more...of trying to constantly be more...perhaps now is as good a time as any to begin to accept me just as I am...not trying to do anything to prove anything but just being more joyful and allowing that to fuel the doing.    


2.  Be Present.  With four kids and a few part-time jobs I am often pulled from one moment to the next without being present in any of it.  Bringing more of me to the moments will help me to enjoy them and to have more to give to the things I do and to the people I love.  


3.  Be okay with things as they are.  Everything in my life is not perfect and I know that and yet the need to try to maintain some sort of perfection even if it is some warped form has been a balancing act that makes me almost crazy.  What do I need to do to let go of control over things being the way I think they should be...that is a struggle but one I am willing to face this year and to work on one moment at a time.  


4.  Know and Express my truth.  My truth is not necessarily someone else's truth but to be my truest self and be able to express that without being bulldozed and also without becoming less of who I am has always been a struggle.  I have always feared not being liked...I tried to avoid being hated...and ya know what I am hated anyway and worse thing is that if I lose myself while trying to please others I also start to hate myself.  Maybe I need to start knowing myself, expressing myself and stop hiding from the results of that...I am who I am...no apologies.  This blog and the other writings I am planning for this new year will hopefully be the start of allowing an honest expression of me.  By the way in no way do I think that this means I should talk more...sometimes this may mean I need to shut my mouth...I am known to over express opinions...that is not the same thing as expressing my truth...sometimes expressing truth means just being...listening...acting...who knows only the moment will tell...


5.  Give more.  I have such abundance in my life and this year I would like to give more and more of it away.  Although this blog seems to be about me acquiring things for my home, I actually have much to give from this home.  I also would like to give of the knowledge I have...hopefully some of the little wisdom I have on home and awakening the self.