Picture Arranging

Everyone has their own ideas on arranging pictures. I'm sure there is a proper way according to decorators but the new school of picture arranging says that just about anything goes if you like it. I subscribe to both. I like different arrangements and am somewhat symmetrical for the most part. Pleasing to the eye (MINE) is my main criteria. The other definite absolute I subscribe to is not hanging them too high. I've said this before: most homes I go into have them above my head. The main or one and only picture on the wall. No, no, no!!! They would look better lower than normal than higher than normal. Eye level doesn't mean a 6' 5" person's eyes. It's somewhere around 5'—at the center of the picture—for it to look right. Now, if you have several pictures on the wall that doesn't apply. Go up or down depending. Just do have them up so high that someone has to look UP to see them. Exceptions apply to little children. ;-)

That being said I put some old pictures on the walls and added some I "made." I saw 2 really pretty prints on the internet and printed them out on card stock to put into frames behind the family room sofa. If I knew where to buy the prints I would have but no such luck. Just some lovely prints I wanted to gaze my eyes upon once in a while. I didn't want to go to the expense of having them framed so I took some old frames I had, painted them white and stuck them to the wall with velcro picture mounts. That way I can change them around if necessary. The picture I simply put in the center with fun-tac. Worked well for me and no expense.

You wouldn't believe what is under, behind, on the right and on the left side of that sofa!! Just until I get everything the way I want it, chicks. *Smile*

Mosaic Monday Ribbons 7/27/09

Mary at littleredhouse is having another Mosaic Monday so please go visit her to see the list of bloggers who are sharing their exquisite photos of their "fluff"!!
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I have a big hat box full of different ribbons I bought or had scraps that were left over throughout the years. Not one of these ribbons was repeated in the making of this mosaic. Plus I have even more boxes and bags of ribbons. I've got to stop buying them!

Master Bath Redo July 2009 and Pink Saturday

For this Pink Saturday I'm showing you our master bathroom. Please go visit with Beverly at howsweetthesound for all the participants for this event. I think you'll enjoy it. And also a "thank you" to Bev because this takes a lot of work to put it together each week with more and more bloggers participating.
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I also want to give a shout out to a sweet lady and her business on ebay selling decals - very inexpensively! I needed some decals recently and she went out of her way to accommodate me. I told her I'd give her some advertising for being so kind and helpful. Go see Christine at Shabby Cottage Decals on ebay.
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I cannot get a good shot of our bathroom as it is so close in there but here is what I could come up with for you. This is only the tub area. There is a shower to the right of it but it's not very "inspiring" and neither is the double sink area where we groom each morning. I doubt that you'd want to see our toilet room either although it has a border, shelves and magazine rack in it. But as I said, this is our "scaled down forever" house and not especially elegant. But there is a lot of love in this house and it is very quiet and peaceful. I want it to be pleasing to the Lord but I personally have a bit of a ways to go in that department. *Sigh*.........

The shelf went back in with a few changes.

The bird cage went back up with the swag now netting instead of the long window scarf. I cannot tell you how much better things look with the pink background and it matches beautifully with the stone surround on the tub, which thankfully isn't beige but more of a taupe—my favorite "neutral" accent color other than white.

A close view of the ceiling hook which holds the scarf, ribbon roses that I made and the bird cage.

I "poofed" the sides also and added the paper roses. I think it looks much more elegant than just a plain tub area.

I added more roses to the tub surround and hid all the paraphernalia one needs when in the tub behind an inflatable pink shell back support. You can't see it very well but it's on the left side bottom. Fancy sponges and soaps can be seen, but the Nair, razor blades and stuff to pretty up the feet are hidden behind it.

And lastly, this is the walk in closet with our clothes, sheets, towels and all the stuff one would normally put in a medicine cabinet but our medicine cabinets hold my makeup and hubs' grooming stuff. Doesn't it look neat and orderly?

I cannot tell you how happy I am that everything is pink now. It just looks fantastic to me. Now, if hubs will just let the painter know when he is ready to have his office painted it'll be over. One tropical green room isn't so bad a price to pay for the rest of the house to be PINK!

Where Bloggers Create 7/24/09

Karen over at MyDesertCottage has invited us to participate in her "Where Bloggers Create" today and since I have spent a great deal of time creating my own blogging/craft/creative spots, I opted in. Please go visit her to view all the others who are sweet enough to show us where they sit each day to do all the lovely things you see on the blogs. It's fun and exciting to look at each person's space. And it just may spur you on with ideas on how to beautify your home or just a room or a vignette within a room even.
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As I've said many times before we moved 4 years ago from a 5,000 sq. ft. on a rolling hill acre house to this 1800 sq. ft. house on a sub-division lot more manageable. The move necessitated a severe cut in furnishings and space for us. BUT we do love it here. We have 4 bedrooms - master bedroom on one side of the house and the other 3 on the other side of house. Only one serves its purpose as a bedroom - ours. The other 3 are hubby's office, my craft/sewing room and a computer/home office for me, so I really have 2 rooms for such. They are small rooms however.

I've given it much thought though and creating can be several ways under the umbrella of "creative." While I love creating items by sewing, I also create by decorating my home and writing, blogging and photographing many things. I want to do it all—or at least as much as I can—before I leave this earth and I don't have many more years left to do it all. So come with me for a tour.........

We are entering the craft/sewing room from the hallway. This is what you see when approaching. There are very, very few "spaces" in my home that are not feminine, girly, romantic, froufrou or pink.

View of the whole room.

The blue school desk I've had for maybe 35 or 40 years. It's been many colors and has been blue for about 25 years now. I've been so busy with other things I've not had time to strip it and repaint it another color. The little brown vintage school desk was purchased a few months ago and has not gotten the attention it deserves but it will soon. This is where I sew. There is hardly a spot in this room that isn't taken up with something. I doubt I could squeeze one more item in. I plan on giving away some of the fabric and craft supplies to a little girl I know who loves to craft.

Shelves hold a great deal of stuff in this room.

This is where I paint. Several people, my daughter included, have told me to paint, decoupage or mosaic the top of this vintage school desk also. Nuuuuuuu, never will happen. That is the original desktop and I love it, but mainly because it is indestructible! I can wipe anything up from it—paint, Mod Podge, hot glue, anything! I did, however, put a shabby chic roses fabric on the front after I painted the sides and back. It was pretty ugly before I did that. And I got that darling little chair at TJMaxx in Boise and love the look of it also.

Can we say "shelves of fabric" here? Yep, lots of fabric but truly I've seen people with much, much more than this. Some of the shelves DO hold craft things. I plan on doing some more birdhouses and trying once again to sell them. *Sigh*...............

Trust me when I tell you THIS is looking neat for this photoshoot. Usually this room is a nightmare, including the desktop!

We are now leaving this room and traveling down the hall to my home office/computer room. I'm a computer nut! Love them.

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As we come out of the craft/sewing room and head down the hall to the front of the house we approach the my office/computer room.

My view upon entering the room. My daughter gave me those hanging lanterns. They are really beautiful when lit. I made a cord cover for them with some very pink toile. I love my window seat and the view out of that window onto the roses in the front yard and the street.

Also upon entering the room you will see my desk. This is the hub of our home, not the kitchen. I'd eat out 5 nights a week if we could. I'm in here most of the time. I do everything on this computer—skype and chat with kids, pay bills, blog(!), buy things on line, play at being a photographer and editor and generally conduct business. :-) BTW, that desk is a cottage style but I wanted something froufrou on the front besides the white so I velcro-ed it to the desk. When the glue wouldn't hold on the fabric I stapled it with my stapler and it's holding nicely. No one would ever know unless they got up very close to see the staples.

My view as I sit at this desk and work. That is an old wood bench we've had for about 25 years and painted it red. The paint is now flaking off and I just threw a Rachel Ashwell cover over it and a bench pillow until I decide if I want to paint it again or not. Probably not. I like it like this. The little shelves in the corner hold items I made that did not sell on ebay. Their loss. I'll probably give most of it away now.

Close up view of my desktop area.
I bought 3 chair covers from a lady on the web and gave one to my daughter and one to another woman blogger who is a stay-at-home mom and struggling to make ends meet on a budget. She needed a lift-me-up! But this was my favorite chair cover.
My desktop is usually clean. What you see is what is usually on it except for my camera which I was using to snap this shot. The white thing on the left front corner is my JBL Creature with tiny speakers on each side of the monitor. It gives me fantastic sound when listening to music on iTunes. My monitor is an Apple Cinema Display and I run Apple OSX Leopard on it. I can't wait until Snow Leopard OS comes out next year! OSX is the most fantastic operating system there is.

Yes, this dress hangs there all the time. A friend had it and makes pillows and stuff out of old wedding gowns she collects. I got this one for a steal. My motto is "froufrou up"!

If I am selling something or just want to post a blog about it, this is where I do my photoshoot on it. This has changed over the last few years but this works just fine for me now.


This little shelf holds all my computer stuff on the top shelf and just miscellaneous items on the other two. Subject to change, of course. I have done photoshoots on this also.
A closer view of the corner of the window seat and the shelves. There is also a lot of computer paraphernalia on the top 2 shelves. My coffee filter rose is in that vase on the top. My daughter made me the mosaic old sewing drawer and I bought the hand painted one from a woman on ebay several years ago.

We now head out the door down the hallway where I have some Charles Wysocki americana limited edition art prints hanging on the walls. He is one of my favorite artists. That little shelf contains things people have given me in swaps and items I made that never sold. I guess I'm not too good at selling, huh??? ;-)

So there you have my "creating" spaces, chicks. Thank you for visiting. I now have to go check out the other participants.
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Random Thought:

Look at the world around you whimsically. I do and it never ceases to delight me because it gives me such a laugh.

Laundry Room Redo July 2009

The laundry room was painted pink also during this time and if you've looked at my right side bar and clicked on "Laundry Room" then you've seen it before BUT I've spruced it up a bit with a few minor changes. The best part is that it is now PINK!! Squeeeeeal...........

This is entering into the room from the hallway to our bedroom. The decals have been on there for a couple of years now. The border is the same but I had to remove the die cut wallpaper border because the painter couldn't paint around it. Just too complicated. Luckily the same border is still available and I ordered 2 rolls in June but actually I only needed one so I have a spare just in case.

The shelf came down and I lowered it when it went back up. The coat rack was also lowered and the broom, dustpan and dusters are now behind the door on nails.

The curtains that hide all the laundry soap and paraphernalia that goes with housekeeping are hiding it once more.

The little white shelf sits proudly once again holding my shoes. Love Bunny won't put his shoes on it and he wears a size 12 so we know what happens when he takes them off, right? He leaves them where I'll trip over them! Yep, he does. You really can't miss a size 12 mudtracker!

But let me say something here about that Snuggle fabric softener. It's "creme sweet almond essence"scented and smells the best of just about any I've ever used except Suavitel Meadow Flowers but it doesn't last on the clothes like Suavitel. I looooove the scent of the Snuggle but I also loooove the scent of the Suavitel. So for the price and long-lasting ability I'll keep using the Suavitel. It scents my whole laundry room and all my laundry smells like it all the time.

My little hanger holds pretty roses hangers I painted and to which I added decals as it was before I was brave enough to try hand painting roses on them. I made the little clothes pin bag to sell and it never did sell so I just hung it in there. It's kind of french looking and quite adorable so it adds to the ambiance of the laundry. The message board slightly behind the door hides the home's command center circuitry. What else could I do with it besides stick a pretty message board in front of it? I put coupons on there and promptly forget about them until just after the expiration date. *Sigh*.......

The "Laundry Room" sign I decoupaged is back up along with the laundry packets I get from an ebay seller from whom I buy fabric. I use the soap and fun-tac the packets on to the walls. A pretty roses wreath is added also. I didn't know what else to do with it so up it goes! Another little clothes pin bag on a pretty hanger gives me visual interest when doing laundry.

This door, of course, leads to our garage. Another pretty clothes pin bag I made hangs near by for clothes pins I use.

A closer look at the shelf with faux greenery and roses.

This is the back of a wood folding chair I bought at World Market at a ridiculously cheap price for the patio, painted my roses on the back and promptly broke when someone set on it. Not one to waste perfectly good hand painted roses I had Love Bunny take it apart to save that slat, tied a vintage ribbon around it and hung it in the laundry room. I truly didn't have the heart to do away with it after all the trouble I went through. See what you can do with "mishaps"?

In back of the dryer I hung this little board I practiced my roses on and surrounded it with more little laundry packets I get from Susan. Darling! Plus they smell good and the packets are very french looking.

Since this redo, I have added these little letters I made from fabric to this area instead of the little french laundry packets.

Looking into my hallway. Iron is hanging up out of my way and I can't for the life of me figure out how to make it look less like an iron than it does. I hid the ironing board with that yellow and pink cover on the right side but I certainly can't paint roses on the iron so what can I do? Some things are just strictly utilitarian and nothing to be done about it.

So who says a laundry room has to be ugly? Not me! You can do miracles if you put your mind to it.
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You know you're getting old when your dining table has a lazy susan for all your medications and mail.