Guest Room - BEWARE!!

For the 3rd straight week Kelly's Korner is hosting "Show us your home" this week it happens to be Guest Room.

Here are my previous posts...
1st week- Kitchen
2nd week- Living Room

This week was going to opt out of the "Show us your home" because my guest room is also my sewing room, kids playroom and computer room and it is a not exactly guest friendly right now!! Why?? Because being creative is MESSY- HELLO!! Well for me it is at least. I would love to have a room dedicated to sewing and crafts but my home is not quite big enough!!

The reason I decided to show this is my Grandma out in Arizona (who has never seen my home) says she really has enjoyed my tour. Grandma this is for you!!! Please excuse the mess!!

This is the kid's section... (good job cleaning up kids)


Are you READY???

It is really bad...


This is the "guest area"...somewhere under all this mess is a bed. Believe it or not we have guest at least once to twice a month. I normally wait until the day of before I clean it up. Good thing my guests love me because this is not exactly a "Guest Retreat"


Yep, I know it is pretty bad and I have no plans on cleaning it up until May 22nd when my parents are coming down. To many projects to work on until then!!!

Gotta keep it real :)

Procrastinator's Party- Children Table and Chairs - DONE!!

A little less then two weeks ago I signed up at The Inspired Room Procrastinator's Party. Although I have been out of town two weekends in a row, a rough week with one child, and just life happenings, I made it a personal goal to complete this project for me!!! I am proud to say it is DONE!!

BEFORE: (What in the world was I thinking?)


A week after I signed up for the party I made my plans...


Work in Progress:


This isn't right: Grrrrr!!


Miss Lawson helping mommy (the final day)


After: I LOVE IT!!!

Saving the Table and Chairs: This is my 3rd attempt at painting this table and chairs. It was the final straw. If this attempt did not work, I was seriously considering throwing it in the dumpster, because it was not meant to be in my home. Luck was on this table and chairs side because now it resides in my kitchen!!

Finishing a project feels good: It is not perfect and does not look like my drawing, but I am not a painter nor an artist, I am a Wanna-Be!! Once I was done and all the frustrations of this project were behind me, Lawson and I did the "Finished Dance" Oh the joy of showing my daughter how it feels to finish something and to be proud of your work!!!

Lessons Learned: I didn't realize until this project how much fun distressing is. Oh my goodness!! I can see how you can get a little "Distressing Happy" Fun stuff!! I normally let my furniture get distressed from 2 kids and a dog, but why should they have all the fun?????

Here are the chairs with their names on them...


Lawson sitting at the new table!!


Melissa was honest about not finishing her project, I will be honest too... I still have to seal the table and chairs, but today is too humid to polyurethane (I promise). Plus, looking at these pictures I am wondering if I should paint the legs black...

Thanks Melissa for hosting such a great Party. It felt wonderful to get one of (many) my projects complete!!!

Mother's Day and Gifts

I spent my Mother's Day in Northern Virginia to watch my baby sister graduate from nursing school. We are so proud of her and all of her accomplishments!!! It was so nice also to be with my mom for Mother's Day!!

My mom with her kids- me, Lauren, and Ryan

Since it was Mother's Day I needed a gift for my mom-duh!!! Like so many other times in my life I waited until Friday morning to collect my supplies & make my gift!! The wonderful and fantastic thing about spray paint and Mod Podge is you can start and finish your project within an hour (perfect for nap time).

I got this kit at Micheal's with the bottom piece and the pegs. Then you buy the letters you need. I was either going to do "love" or "family" but since I was running short on time I decided "love." Plus, I LOVE my mommy!!!

One hour later here is the finished product. Happy to say she really liked it. I was hoping to take a picture of it in her beautiful home but didn't have the time. We are going to put it on top of a cabinet so you can't see the base.

Then there was my Mother's Day. Here is my family... Love you guys!!


Collins, Wesley, and Lawson went shopping and bought me this....
It is HUGE - 27" X 40" to go in my long hallway upstairs. My friend, Heather, added scrapbook paper to some of the photo holes and it turned out really nice. Here is yet another project for me to complete!!!

Show us where you live- Living Room/Den

One of my favorite blogs, Kelly's Korner, is hosting "Show us where you live." Last week it was the kitchen and I had a blast getting a snick peak into hundreds of peoples' home. Thanks to all those that shared and those that made such sweet comments on my kitchen. This week it the Living Room. We call it "the den" and this is where we do most of our living.

Walking in from the garage. This room is very warm and cozy!


The wood fireplace.


The back part of the den. I love our bay window seat. I made all of the curtains and cushions- I love making home decor!!


These are our flying friends that watch over us. I am ONE LUCKY GIRL!!!

This was the selling feature of the house. I love our fireplace. We do move the chair in the winter when we have fires. The problem is the mantle is so HUGE I have no idea how to decorate it. Any suggestions?

My husband's favorite piece- besides the mounted ducks!!

Here is a glimpse at my living room. Most times these pocket doors are closed!! NO KIDS ALLOWED!!

This room is on my TO DO LIST, and although it isn't finished, I love going in here to get a quiet moment for myself!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Organizing Challenge with a little Mod Podge too!!

I am a busy lady, like so many other women out there. Since I am so busy (some of it self-inflicted) I tend to over look some details in my life that other would CRINGE over. That something is

ORGANIZING!!

It seems to me that every time I organize I can't find anything. So to eliminate this problem I just don't organize. Simple, right??? It just so happens that one of my husband's pet peeves is not being organized (so glad he loves me!!)

On the way to beach this weekend we were talking about home stuff we would like to get done. We were having an open and honest conversation on the way to see his family (could of gone good or bad, luckily it went good). He told me that he would be more inclined to do more home projects for me/us if our home was more organized. I didn't get mad (sometimes I have a tendency too when he questions my homemaking skills) I took this as a challenge. I decided to start organizing our home. The question is will he hold up his side of the bargain!?!?!

Monday: I organized our linen closet in our bathroom. I would show you a picture but it isn't that pretty so trust me it is organized!! I am finally able to get sheets in this closet rather then taking up a dresser drawer!!

Tuesday: Nothing (busy day)

Wednesday: 3 kitchen drawers and a medicine cabinet. Proof Below...

Before:

After: Divided utensils into metal and plastic (bet it doesn't stay like this for a week)

Medicine Cabinet

Before: So embarrassing- I have never claimed to be Martha Stewart

After:

Notice the cool canister on the bottom right?

This now holds all of our band-aids and creams for boo-boos. Nothing can be easy for me so I decided to do a little project while organizing. I made a band-aid canister with the following items...

After: If I had some cool scrap booking stuff I would write band-aids, but this will have to do!!

This project made me laugh out loud because I remember reading some one's blog about how they mod podged a metal canister and when they tried to open it up the next day it wouldn't open (that so stinks). I made doubly sure I didn't put paper under the lid!!

Back to organizing...

I still have lots of drawers, closets, under beds, cabinets, pantry (YUCK!) to deal with, but I am getting there S L O W L Y. Maybe this will make my life simpler OR maybe it will make me even more crazy because I can't find CRAP!! Who knows....

Show us where you live- Kitchen

Kelly's Korner is hosting Show us where you live Friday. My friend, Heather, told me about it yesterday while we were out to dinner, she is one of my friends I made banana bread for :)

She told me she was going to participate and I originally told I was not, because my kitchen is my least favorite room in the house. As I was cleaning to leave for the weekend (yes I clean so when I come home after a weekend away everything is nice and clean for the first 2 seconds when we arrive) I decided I was going to participate. My feeling is you only know how far you've come if you are honest about where you started!! So I am showing my kitchen!!



Welcome to my kitchen...

This is the view coming from the garage through the den..

Notice the mismatched chairs for the kids? We have a wooden princess chair for my daughter and an NCSU for my son. Why you ask? Because I was tired of recovering the seat cushions every time we had a function at the house and the kids like having their own personal chairs. No arguments of who sits where.

The cabinets were originally brown and hubby painted them white for me. Now I want to paint them with a glaze like Kelly's cabinets but I have a feeling that will never happen. I would also like new counters but that is way down on the list!!! I did make the curtains and I really love my curtains!

The view from the kitchen looking back to the den.


Fridge and pantry! My two favorite pieces are right here. The rooster from Pier One and the chalkboard I redid.

Up close of my 9x9 kitchen. It is small but it does the job!! Plus, I am not a big cook so it isn't a big deal. The item I dislike the most is the original 1988 stove. It is so old and yucky I can't stand it, but money doesn't grow on trees and my husbands theory is "if it isn't broke we are not getting a new one" grrrr!!

This is my humble kitchen. Thanks for stopping by!!!

Procrastinators Party!!

Looks like I am not the only one out in blog land that procrastinates. The Inspired Room is having a Procrastinators Party and leave it to me to be fashionably late!! I first had to find a project that I've been procrastinating on!! HAHA!! That is a laugh!! All I have to do is look to the right or the left of my computer and I can find about 5-6 in this room alone!!

Although there are plenty of undone/unfinished projects in my house, I really wanted to challenge myself and do a project that I have been putting off. Since this party is the exact type of motivation I need to get my act together I picked my children's table and chairs that I keep in the kitchen. The deal is you pick a project that you have been procrastinating on, show it to everyone and then in 2 weeks show the completed project.

Before:



The story on this table. My daughter received this as a gift when she was 18 months old from her Nana and Dah and they got it at Ikea unfinished. Well, I painted it a fish theme and quickly got tired of it and painted it white. Then it sat primer white for about a year. Then I decided I was going to make it a chalkboard table. Well, good idea in theory but I am not a big fan of chalk dust in my house. Especially, when my child can make a fresh piece of chalk into a nub in 2 minutes. Now I believe all children's chalk belongs on the sidewalk.

Here it sits in my kitchen undone, untidy for almost 2.5 years. From afar it looks okay but up close it is a mess. I am challenging myself to get this painted!! I can do it!! I just need an idea. Anyone have a good idea to pass along? I would really appreciate it.

I am such a slacker!! I just realized I have even posted about my procrastinated painting projects!! Even more reason to get this done!!

Stay tuned!!! In two weeks (even though I will not be in town for any of weekends during that time) I will have this done!! I am off to find inspiration from someone out there!!

Good luck to all of the other procrastinators out there participating in the Procrastinators Party!! We can do it!!