Family Room Redo July 2009

The week we had the rest of the house painted was a blur to both of us. We sank into bed each night in total exhaustion from moving things from room to room for the painter. Although I'm not completely done with this room, there isn't much more to do. This is how it looks viewing it from our dining area. Soft lace curtains are tacked up over the entrance into this room for the soft romantic feminine feel I want. Love Bunny is going to make me a fireplace screen so I can paint it and put roses on it. I think I'll do decals until I get better with my roses painting. *Wink*

I left the border up for two reasons:
1. It is very expensive and
2. I can't find it anywhere anymore!
But he painted around it and I have 3 small patches to fix where I had to take down the curtain rods. But I do have a few feet left over to do this. I wish I could find it again but I've looked and looked. I bought the border many years ago because it is truly just scrumptious with roses. When I bought it I told my friends that I was buying it for my "forever house", which meant the last house we would live in until we were carted off kicking and screaming to the old folks home! I've kept that promise and never put it up anywhere until we bought this house. The pink chair I decoupaged came out of my bedroom into this room. As I've said many times, I "shop" in my home.......and daughter's home and storage shed. ;-)

I decided to go with "less" mostly because I love seeing so much pink. It's my favorite color, makes me happy, and I love being around it. I'm very, very visual. The beige color originally on the walls is my least favorite color for walls and I think I tried to cover it up with so much stuff. I love the new look, although, I'll be putting just a few more things up there..........maybe. I replaced the shabby chic roses curtains with plain white ones with vertical ruffles. They aren't very visible in the window because of the light but they are lovely curtains.

Of course, you can't see what's behind the chairs in the room or the end tables! I love the green ticking stripe slipcover and have had many, many requests asking where I got it. I bought it online at Touchstone but they aren't selling online anymore and I haven't seen it for a couple of years in their online store. I wonder where it could be found now. It truly is very shabby chic! But I also love blue so I found those 2 toile pillows stuffed with feathers......squeeeeeeeal..........at TJ Maxx for $25.00 a pair and snapped them up so fast I caused a whirlwind in the store that day. Then the plaid pillow I found at JCPenney and I made the other one out of a quilt I had. All in all this room has turned out well for me. Just needs a bit of "tweaking" and I'll be done!

A friend, Holly, painted that little picture for me over the sofa with the roses and birds looking down into a valley. I never framed it so I just hung it on the wall and put a bigger frame around it and it turned out just fine. I like the look and tried it again in the bedroom. Those pictures are for another blog post but I think you'll be delighted with that room if you like this room.

Here is a close up photo of that wallpaper border:
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Random Thought:

A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something. Be quiet and listen; you'll learn more and be considered very intelligent by all around you.

My New Pink Walls for Pink Saturday 7/18/09

Go visit Beverly at howsweetthesound for all the Pink Saturday participants today. And thank you, Bev, for doing this. I think it is the most participants of any blog event in blogland!
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The walls are finally painted pink. We have one more room to do but I'll talk about that later.

This is the guest bathroom. I took an idea from Myrna and put some fabric over the mirror to soften it and the room. I have another idea but I'll have to wait until I can find some items I need. I put the lace back up there for a touch of femininity and because I have so many little snippets of it. It adds to the overall effect.

I love the wallpaper even more with the pink wall as background. They complement each other perfectly.

Some bloggers have emailed me and asked how I did the "poofs" on the fabric. Since this is a long scarf I just took several inches and tied it off with a rubber band and then tied it with ribbon and flounced it out. Very easy, quick and simple to do. Just arrange it the best way you can since this is a bit slippery fabric. Then I hooked it on to a cup hook I screwed in just above the mirror.

Another "poof" I did here is with tulle netting. I originally bought 20 yards of this pink tulle so I had a LOT more to gather up. Here I simply started folding it back and forth several times, tied it with a ribbon and then plucked it apart. It made much better roses or rosettes than the silky polyester in the guest bath. All that tulle cost me less than $20.00 and looks beautiful over my bed. I then added a paper rose to each "poof" and screwed in the cup hook and looped the ribbon over the hook.

This one is in our master bathroom. Pictures will have to come later when I finish in there. Isn't it amazing how small details can add so much pizzazz to a room? Cheaply, too!

They're all big and fluffy.

And now we'll talk about Love Bunny's office. This is the "before he cleaned it" picture I showed you a few days ago.

This is the "after he cleaned it" picture. He doesn't want pink in there. So we agreed on a mint green and a new wraparound desk for him. The promise of that spurred him on, I tell ya. He got into such a snit about it that I'm not even scheduling the painter back. Hubs has to do that himself. My aim in life is to make and keep him HAPPY!! So when he's ready for it to be painted he'll have to call him to come and paint the very last room in this house. Then I'll get the desk. That ought to spur him on. *Smile*

Foofing Up the Curtains......Again

If you knew how many curtains and bed coverings I had in this house you would NOT believe me. Just let me say there are many different ones. I've tried to cut down by joining "Foofy Curtain Anonymous" but even they have given up on me and thrown me out. Love Bunny was very sad at this, hoping that they could cure me. *Sigh*......... However, it makes me happy. If it makes me happy and doesn't hurt anyone then why in the world would I WANT to fix it? Hmmmm????

Okay, okay, with that being said, let me show you what the living room looked like a few days ago and what it looks like now.

I bought these dark red panels in January at Home Fabrics in Boise at a great price and hung them up. They seemed a bit dark and I thought I'd get used to them and truly do love the color, but I'm striving for more light in this north facing dark living room. I didn't get used to them!

Living room up until a few days ago.

Soooo while perusing through WM the other day I came upon these little pink and green jewels. One of my favorite color combinations. Now, how in the world could I have missed these panels as I'm a frequent WM shopper? So I bought these two pairs to see which one went better. I liked the plaid better. I love stripes and plaids and medium checks but plaids overrule the stripes and checks. Hence, I kept the 2 plaid panels, took back the 2 stipes and bought the very last 2 plaid panels. Whew, just in time!

Living room today. I do like the less formal lighter color and whimsey of a buffalo pink and green plaid. Much lighter for that room. I tied them with pink satin ribbon bows and put on pink paper roses to jazz them up a bit. Decorating is my most favorite thing to do........especially when Love Bunny says right in the middle of decorating that he wants to go camping the next day. *Sigh*....... He is still alive and kicking and I told him I needed one extra day. You DO NOT tell this chick the night before that you want us to go into the woods for a couple of days. I need at least 2 days notice to get used to the idea of communing with nature: bugs, skunks, bears, flies, other campers(?!), no showers and wood smoke!

Then there's the family room. It's striving for the shabby chic relaxed look with quilts thrown over chairs, a green stripe slipcover for the sofa and white lace sheers topped with ruffled white curtains. I also bought a white curtain rod and lowered it to show off our white woodwork. It's truly very pretty wood work and I don't want to put any holes in it so I lowered the new rod to either side of the window, which is south facing and gets a lot of light. I do love this look in here. It's very feminine, froufrou-y and light. There's only so much I can do to this north/south facing house for lightness, chicks. Maybe later we can get another solar tube in the living room but not at the moment. However, I do need to patch the wallpaper in here and the room will be painted pink next week. Squeeeeeeeeeal!! Can't wait to see this room in pink.

I composed this post and prescheduled it before the family room was painted pink so you'll understand what's going on since it is beige in these photos.
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Random Thought:

Try to follow your heart in everything that is good and beautiful. You'll never be sorry.

I Haaaaaaaaaaate Camping!!!!!!

Settle in for this horror story, chicks, because it "ain't purdy", I tell ya.

First of all, this is a picture of our beautiful Sawtooth Mountains here in Idaho near Stanley. It is beautiful, but..........looks can be deceiving. Here's the story of this camp out. We DID NOT live beautifully!

Love Bunny did not give me any notice at all this time, just said he wanted to go camping "tomorrow" and I tried to stall it but he insisted. Well, he couldn't get the camper lights to work on the new SUV we just got so we did delay it for a day (prayer did NOT work here and I truly did pray so LB must have needed the solitude more than I needed the prayer to work). He was ecstatic but we didn't realize there were other things that needed to be fixed before we went.

Here is a picture of me after 3 days in the wilds of Idaho—no shower, shampoo, blow dryer, makeup or curling iron. I "roughed" it all 3 1/2 days up there. I "finger combed" my hair the whole time. When I only take my moisturizer (which I did) that's roughing it. You cannot live in this dry climate without moisturizer. Notice the eyes have no mascara on them either. We were in a secluded spot but could see other campers a bit from where we were.

This is me trying to be cheerful and take a picture of myself. Notice the eyes in the 2nd one. They are NOT happy!

Love Bunny forgot chairs so we sat in the camper the whole time and it rained most of the time. Now, I did this for him because the older I get the less I like leaving my house, bed, pillow, computer, sewing machine, refrigerator, TOILET(!!!!), etc. I did it for th' man and to save our marriage. Okay, so I forgot the butter; it's not as bad as forgetting the lawn chairs. It was 109° the day we got there and cooled down to 47° at night, but we came home in mid 80s weather. The camp fridge didn't work either so we had to go buy extra ice for the chest we took up there and thank goodness we took that because I picked up a Milky Way bar to reduce the stress of this.

Then LB forgot to put the lid on the portable toilet we had in the camper at night. (During the day we put it outside.) I kept smelling something awful during the night and when dawn appeared I saw the 2 lids (one inner lid and one outer lid) for the toilet not on it. He got up in the night and used it and forgot to put them back on. This was the 2nd day of using it. I don't think I have to elaborate anymore, right?

Hubs has a whistle in our trailer which is actually a good idea, but he decided to play "lifeguard" with it. He'd blow on it and say "okay, everyone outta the pool" in that officious way lifeguards do. Then he'd blow it again and say, "no running there" as I just looked at him sarcastically and asked, again sarcastically, if he had any MORE quips in his repertoire of lifeguard sayings. He gave me a few more with a smirk on his face: "no diving in that end of the pool", "no food in the pool", etc. He can make me laugh whether I want to or not.

He did put up a shower the night before we left so I could shower and feel a bit clean but the camper was absolutely trashed inside from the mud and "untidiness." I'm a fastidious person with my house but it does no good in that camper. We started making a list of things we should take with us next time. I'm hoping there isn't a "next time" for a looooooooong time.

Where I've Created....... a Mess!!

I spent all last week moving furniture, wall "fluff" and clothing out of rooms that were to be painted. Each morning we'd haul stuff out that we didn't get the night before AFTER we hauled stuff back in. Now I'm sure you understood that! Even I don't get it but just let me say that we were "hauling"!! Room to room. Everything came off walls into other rooms till that room was painted and each night we'd haul it back in and start on the next room. It went on for 5 nights. Craig, the painter, would paint the master walk-in closet we emptied in the morning on to the bed and we'd put it back in that evening before we could even FIND the bed. I didn't get photos of it but you get the picture. I still have stuff in the family room to put back or not put back. I have this sinking feeling I'm going to get rid of a lot more stuff that was on the walls. I love the pink so much that I don't think I'll put everything back on the walls. (Let me say here that this is a tremendous relief to Love Bunny.)

Love Bunny's arm as he's hauling stuff out of laundry room to kitchen while waiting for Craig to finish our master bathroom. Pillows from bedroom are in living room also. Don't even ask me why!

Our bedroom with the newly painted coats of pink paint. Not yet decided what to put back up but you'll see it sometime this week.

We had a bit of "touchy moments" that almost ended up on Judge Judy's Divorce Court (since we don't watch tv I'm just imaging what it is like). Hubs didn't want me to touch his office. Now, I have this vision (because I already have the fabrics) of black and white toile and checks in his room with red accents so the pink walls would have looked good. Nuuuuuuuu, he had other ideas. I'm the "decorator" here but he said I only gave him 2 choices: pink or white. Sooooooo, rather than make my children orphans, I hauled his sweet backside to Home Depot and said, "Here are several thousand colors; pick one." He gravitated to a pretty pale green called Topical Dream. Sort of minty green. Okay, that's doable, just have to change the accent colors is all. I might even try to find a toile and check to match the green color instead of using the black and white I already have. *Sigh*.............

You do get the picture here, right. This is the "before" while he's cleaning it up today. We don't work or shop on sundays but he wants to get this mess straightened up soon because I promised him one of those desk units if he let me paint the room something other than beige. I do not like beige and don't feel good around it. Beige does NOT bother him. He couldn't care any less so I finally talked him into another color if he chose it as described above. *Sigh*............. I do think it's the promise of a new desk with a wrap-around for the printer and files and such. Men can be so obstinate, but as my friend, Sherilynn, said to me recently, "You've always said your aim in life is to make him happy", I have to admit she's right. A man's home is his castle and he has no problem at all letting me paint it pink, just don't touch his private space! When I snapped this photo he laughingly asked me what I was doing - the before photo for the "before and after" photos. I just smiled...........*Wink*