P is for Pea Green

I'm more than halfway done in my quest to organize my decorating and my blog.
It's "P" week!! Whoo Hoo!!

You saw my bird mantle last week. This week in honor of "P" week, I am going to show you my "Pea Green-Peter Cottontail" mantle.

This mantle is downstairs in the den/laundry area/craft area/junk pile.

This is the same concrete bunny you saw here. I moved the square wreath down and added the green tree/plant. I LOVE the pot that it is in.

More greenery in another one of those pots.

The top of the mantle has two empty frames with a metal flower inside, along with a green mirror I found at Fred's.

For Valentine's Day these rabbits sported red toile neckties. I changed them out to green to match the rest of the "Pea Green" mantle.
I had to tie the ribbon on because I removed some twisty raffia-daisy looking thing that was GLUED around their necks.
When I took it off it ripped some of the paper mache stuff off the rabbits.
Kind of like the woman with the velvet ribbon...anyone know that story?

"I to-o-o-o-o-ld you you'd be sor-r-r-r-r-r-r-y!"
(go read the story if that makes no sense to you!)

Full shot of mantle

Funky shot of mantle

Happy Weekend! See you soon (probably Saturday) with a post about a solution for hoarding! (sort of)

Come see Ms. Jenny!

Orinthology

Birds seem to be all the rage, from blogland to boutiques, you can find birds everywhere. I have become a little addicted to the fine feathery friends.
I have had to hold myself back and not pick up every single bird I come across.
O is a tough letter but here I am for post #2 of "O" week:

As I sit on my laptop, I can count almost 18 birds in my house (within 20 feet of me).
Is that bad? Is that borderline addiction?
Well, you evaluate the cuteness and tell me YOU could resist even one of these little guys.

This trio I got at my favorite Flea Market (I finally figured out what to call the place, part thrift, part antique store, part boutique). They were a weird greenish-brown, but I just gave them a shot of white spray paint and I think they are pretty content on their new perch.

Little Red Man I got from Lowe's. He has a yellow brother, but I don't have a home for him, he is sitting on a chair waiting for his perch.
(Oooh, that makes 19 birds, I forgot about him.)
I just fell in love with his fat little body even BEFORE I knew how cool birds were going to be
(I got him last year, pre-blog, pre-being that aware of trends.)
Maybe I do have a little sense of style after all!

I got three of these toile guys at Hobby Lobby. I love them. I have one on my computer cabinet (shown above) and the other two on lamps.

Okay, so I forgot about this bird too
(I actually thought of 4 more I forgot about. I'm up to 24. This is getting a little scary. Maybe I do have a problem.)
This one is on top of a cloche/birdhouse thingy. He is pretty cute too.

This bird sits on a top of a weathervane that is on a 3 footish tall stand. I got him for $5 at a different Flea Market. He's cute too...couldn't say no to him.

Seriously, could you have denied wire man a home? I didn't think so.

I have so many birds, I dedicated my spring mantle to even more birds:

I found three of these birds at Cato (a clothing store of all places). I love how they look like concrete and are little chubby guys.

This picture/canvas I found at Big Lots for $5. Couldn't resist. Really I couldn't, I stood there looking at it for like 30 whole seconds and I just couldn't make my hands put it back down.

This picture (and another above it) hubby got at an auction. He didn't really set out to get it. You know how auctions are, you are bidding on one thing and they start throwing a bunch of other stuff in with it hoping to get the bid to go higher. SO, technically, I didn't choose these so I COULD HAVE resisted them.

(Maybe I'm back to 21.)

Here is a full shot of the mantle.

Full shot of mantle and fireplace.

So, could you have turned any of those guys down?
If I had to choose one to lose, it would probably be the trio.
After that I would really have a hard time. They are all so different and I love them for different reasons. Don't make me choose!
I promise I won't buy anymore birds...today.


Linking up with Funky Junk Donna:

And those amazing chicks from:


I'm also having fun with Jenny the very creative lady at Jenny Matlock

Outdoor Dilemma

I've made it to "O" week.

I am just going to skip over all the innuendos that could apply here and go directly to my DECORATING post:

I am adapting this post so I can join in with Amanda at Serenity Now for another one of her "Decorating Dilemma" parties.

I have a "dirty" white house with a brown roof.
When we moved in one of the first projects I did was paint the front door red
(Crabby Apple Red by Sherwin Williams).

I LOVE my front door. No matter what you blogging people do,
I will NEVER want to change the color of my front door.
Wait, did someone paint their front door neon green? That might look cool too...
just kidding. I seriously have no plans to change my mind on this.

What I need some input on are my shutters. The shutters are currently just a few shades darker than the house...and that is SO not my style.
Look at those shutters...see what I mean. BLEEEEECK!
Hubby made me some new shutters and I, for the life of me, CANNOT decide on a color.

I have three shutters painted three different colors. What do you think?

Option #1 (Dark Rockwood Red)

Option #2 (French Roast)


Option #3 (some dark brown I can't think of the name of)

Now, here is a shot of all of them with the door as a coordinating color reference:
They go (from left to right) Options 1, 2, and 3
Look at it again from far off with more of the house:
Again (L toR) Options 1, 2, 3
That one shutter closest to the window is also painted in Option 1.

Please vote.
But let me say that option #1 (which is the color I started with and have had on display for 2 months) looks rather purple in sunlight. Not to let that sway the votes...
I really want to get my shutters hung up.
I. HATE. THAT. MONOTONE!!!

No Respect

If my wood pieces could talk they would empathize with Rodney Dangerfield and say:

"I get no respect!"

My last post for "N" week is refers to the way I treat my wood pieces and antiques.

I really don't care much for wood. It's not that I am all "anti-environment" or anything like that. I just don't really like the look of wood in my house.
I think I can count on one hand how many natural wood pieces I have in my house.

Hang on, let's see (1, 2,...)

4, I think I have 4.

Here is one of them:

I got this secretary at an auction. I wanted to paint it, but hubby wasn't really on board with that idea (tree-hugger...)

I sat with it like this for a few months, then one night...

I decided to at least paint the inside of the glass doors (or rather the back of the cabinet you can see from the doors) light blue. Yes, that same light blue that everything seems to be turning in my house. (You can see it here.)

For some strange reason, I said something to hubby about it (with the paint can and paint brush in hand.) Here is the conversation:

Me: (walking into kitchen with offending items in hand) "I think I'm going to paint the backs of the secretary."

Hubby: "Why?"

Me: "Cause all that brown is driving me nuts. It's boring."

Hubby: "Molly, please don't paint that. It's an antique."

When he called me by name I knew I was in trouble.

Me: "For real?"

Hubby: "Yeah, please don't paint it."

This is is the point where snarl my nose and let out an audible sigh (very much like a 14 year-old) and turn and walk out of the room.
I am completely in shock that he actually told me I COULDN'T do something.
What is that about anyway.

I go back into the dining room, pout, and stare at the field of brown-ness. I really hate not getting my way. Wait a minute...OOOOHHHH....I know!

I started my new plan by going down to my decorating closet and getting the liquid starch and the floral fabric my roman shades are made out of.
(I did all this WITHOUT telling hubby my new plan, I couldn't take hearing NO again!)

I snuck into the kitchen and got a mixing bowl and poured the starch in. Then I measured the size of each area I wanted to cover.
(It was pretty loosely measured because I am just lazy that way and
impatient too...)

I then soaked each piece in the starch.

I squeezed out the excess liquid and placed each piece on the area I wanted to cover. I smoothed it out with my hand and voila!

The best thing about this trick is that you can take the fabric right off and it doesn't damage the wood. You can also use starch to apply fabric to walls or just about anything. Pretty cool technique and because you squeeze most of the liquid out you really don't use that much.

I am going over to Funky Junk Donna's, come on over, she will be glad to see you!
I am also joining up again at Alphabe-Thursday. Alphabetizing...a woman after my own heart:


P.S. I was informed by hubby that he was misquoted in my "Never Satisfied" post. I have since corrected that mistake. Sorry hun!!

N is for Never Satisfied

"My wife isn't hard to please. She is just hard to keep pleased."

True quote said by my hubby...about me.

I can't be mad at him, really I can't. Why you ask?

Because, unfortunately for me, IT. IS. SO. TRUE.

Welcome to "N" week (one week late due to Spring Break!):

We moved into this house on Halloween.

Stop yelling, I know I've told you already. Maybe there is someone who didn't know that. I said that for them, OKAY??
Before I was so rudely interrupted, I was saying we just moved into this house. I proceeded to paint every. square. inch pretty much before Christmas.

Right before we moved, I started blogging. Seeing all the lovely things you people do everyday has truly inspired me. Thanks to you I am now obsessed with birds and burlap and
I am now second guessing every color choice I made-just four months ago.

Case in point. The built ins shown above. In October I painted the backs of them red.
I love red. I really do, but now I started thinking I have too much red. My couch is red as are my chairs and the ottoman.
I was also concerned that my house was looking a little too much like a condiment stand--you know, ketchup and mustard.
So...I spent some precious hours of my spring break repainting those suckers.

Before...my lovely red:

After, a much more subdued blue:

Yeah, there is still one shelf that still has red behind it. The big ole' TV is there and I didn't feel like moving it yet.

Here is another angle of before:

Yeah, that is "Hoarders" on the TV. I love that show. I do; however, think my youngest daughter is going to be on that show one day. But that is a post for another day.

Here is an after angle (the view you get when you come up the steps:
I know it is kind of hard to tell with the red behind the TV. Haven't motivated myself yet.
And, in case you were wondering, that is "Minute to Win It." My family likes that show. They like to compete along with the contestants.

The next project is to repaint my entry way. It is also red. It is going to go a shade lighter than my living room walls.

Oh yeah, and I am thinking about redoing my bedroom. Yeah, that one.
Don't tell hubby. He doesn't know yet.
But it really isn't that big of a deal. Just different paint color and different dust ruffle. I even already have the fabric.
Guess what color. Yeah, blue.
I don't know what is wrong with me. Oh yeah, I know I have the
"can't stay satisfied-itis."
Told you he was right.
You are starting to see things his way aren't you...

Come join me for Alphabe-Thursday: