Loving My Living Room

When we first moved into our place in December 2012, it was a very nice blank canvas.  It didn't need a lot in the way of repairs, which I always expected my home would.  Instead, it was a very nice, very bland home just waiting for some inspiration to hit it.

Problem was, it was REALLY intimidating to fill an entire house at once.  We had furniture, and I had some of my favorite items from when I lived at home, plus some raw materials for projects that I had collected over the years, intending to utilize them when I finally got my own place.

I had grand ideas, but somehow, almost two years in, my house was still looking pretty boring.  My living room, especially, was making me angry.  I had curtains and pillows that I liked, but there were some issues with the walls.  I'm not a huge fan of the color yellow (because it has to be the PERFECT shade), and the whole first floor is...you guessed it-- yellow!

Here's the LR when we moved in:

And a shot towards the Dining Room:

After almost two years, it looked like this:

We had couches and some other great furniture, but the walls were severely lacking.  The only original thing on the wall was the picture of me that my friend's mom had painted, and it's a little odd to be looking at yourself all day.

My husband is not much on home dec, but he reports that I spent months just looking at the wall before I finally decided on what to do.

Step 1: Remove photo of self and find something more appropriate; switch out small items that aren't working.

As I said, it's just too much to look at oneself all day.  I switched it out for something I found at Joann for about $30 (I only buy stuff on sale; you should know that by now).  It's one piece, but it's staggered for interest.

As for some of the smaller pieces, I switched one circular table out for another, and I bought an ottoman so that I could stop resting my feet on a decorative trunk.

Step 2: Utilize garbage-picked shutters in fun and funky way.

I found these AWESOME shutters on the side of the road and (swallowing my pride) threw them in the back of my car.  I looked at all kinds of different ways to use them, but, ultimately, just putting them on the wall with a thorough cleaning was the best way to go.  I got the idea to put up photos with clothespins from this blog.

Step 3: buy (and dress) a leaning bookshelf.

A leaning bookshelf is something I have always wanted (can't tell you why), so I was excited to find this affordable version at Walmart.  It's not hardwood, but it's really nice, and it acts as the perfect way to showcase a lot of stuff I already had and just didn't know where to put. I had dudes commenting on it.  That's how you know you actually made a difference.

TA-DA

That's really all I did to make my living room one of my favorite rooms.  I felt like I had so many good pieces that just weren't coming together.

To review:

Before

& After

Got a room transformation you'd like to share?

Giving Thanks

Hi everyone!  I hope that you all had an amazing Thanksgiving.  As you'll note from my last post on the subject of November 26th, I had serious misgivings about this holiday.  I haven't been so happy to be proven wrong in a very long time.

Turns out that my Thanksgiving was terrific.  It was one of the best I have had in a long time, in fact, and I was wasting all this time and energy dreading it (my husband's voice is ringing in my head, saying, "I told you so...").

I am posting today to share some awesome pictures of the event but also to share the wise words of my boyfriend, James Clear.  I introduced James to you in a previous post, bu this Thanksgiving advice was something that really hit home (and when I showed it to my husband, his exact words were, "This guy is stealing my material;" sensing a theme yet?).

You can read it all below or here on his own website (poke around; you might find something awesome!)

And, because I'm a visual type, here's just how happy my Thanksgiving was!

How to Be Thankful For Your Life by Changing Just One Word

By James Clear    |    Life Lessons

My college strength and conditioning coach, Mark Watts, taught me an important lesson about how to be thankful that applies to life outside of the gym as well as inside it…

As adults, we spend a lot of time talking about all of the things that we have to do.

You have to wake up early for work. You have to make another sales call for your business. You have to work out today. You have to write an article. You have to make dinner for your family. You have to go to your son’s game.

Now, imagine changing just one word in the sentences above.

You don’t “have” to. You “get” to.

You get to wake up early for work. You get to make another sales call for your business. You get to work out today. You get to write an article. You get to make dinner for your family. You get to go to your son’s game.

I think it’s important to remind yourself that the things you do each day are not burdens, they are opportunities. So often, the things we view as work are actually the reward.

Embrace your constraints. Fall in love with boredom. Do the work.

You don’t have to. You get to.

Crafts & Champagne: Reverse-Reverse!

Please pardon that this post is from a crafting party I held almost a month ago and was too busy (*cough* lazy *cough*) to write about.  As you know, Crafts & Champagne is one of my favorite things to do with my girlfriends (and, apparently, my husband's boy friend now wants to be invited; he'll fit right in).  We decided to do it right before Halloween but then faced the conundrum of which holiday we should center our crafts around: Halloween (almost over!), Thanksgiving (a little ways out) or Christmas (far away, but so many fun things to do).

That's when Pinterest rescued us.  I had found and pinned several crafts that were reversible to cover several seasons, and we opted to get the best of both worlds.

Popsicle sticks are cheap, easy, and fun, so I grabbed some of those for a reversible scarecrow/snowman.

Turns out, wooden blocks are expensive as sin (considering they are actually scraps), but I found a decent replacement at Joann for the words.

Hobby Lobby had all their Xmas stuff on sale for 40% off, and I found 2-packs of blank ceramic ornaments for only a few dollars, and that rounded off our supplies.  (Of course, Mom was kind enough to donate her wood paints, and Lauren definitely came through with the extra glue gun).

Top: our inspiration   Bottom: our finished products

All in all, we did pretty darn well, although you'll notice that the wooden banner is the best because Sarah did it (*cough* over-achiever *cough*).

Have any other ideas for multi-season/multi-holiday crafts?

We would LOVE to hear about them!

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art.... It has no survival value; 

rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves