The New Living Room

As most of you know, hubby went off to the "academy where you learn to fold your clothes in ridiculously small ways."

(Actually he is at the Kentucky State Police Academy. As of October 30, he will be a Kentucky State Trooper.)

He has been gone (during the week) since the end of May.

I had big, big plans while he was gone; some have been accomplished, some have not.

This is one of those that WAS accomplished.

You all also know that I have painted and repainted at least 5 rooms in our house since we moved in almost 2 years ago. I picked the paint for all the upstairs rooms prior to moving in and let's just say that I regretted the decisions within the first 6 months. That led to the dining room redo last winter.

This summer I finally chose the wall color and proceeded to repaint the living room and kitchen (as well as rearrange the living room) at approximately 1am. Seriously, I did. go check my facebook statuses if you don't believe me.

Anyway, here are the befores.

It is so strange to me how different things look IRL that they do in pictures. The living room never really bothered me until I saw how it played out on "film." It was then that I realized the yellow was not working for me (along with the brick with black grout). Here is the same wall after paint and rearranging.

Now I must tell you that is the spot that "Cindy" was supposed to go.

Who's Cindy?

Go read this and this and see for yourself.

I was so excited about putting a dresser there that I had to find a replacement for Cindy. I found this little sweetie at an auction-big surprise huh? She was much more expensive than Cindy's $15 price tag, but I guess you have to be willing to pay more for furniture WITHOUT powder post beetles!

This was one of those shots that made me say-yuck, I need to do something about that brick! Here is a similar shot after the new paint.

This is the view as you walk in from the foyer.

Finally, here is a tour of the living room. I realized that you all really haven't seen my living room from all angles.

So here goes.


Now you are walking around the couch...
(and yes that lamp shade is wompy-jawed. I cannot get it to stay straight!)

This is the view from the fireplace looking back towards the foyer.

View from the hearth looking towards the hallway.

This is the view from the hallway looking towards the kitchen.

View from the kitchen.

And an overall view of the living room.

Now, I will give you some close-ups of some of my favorite areas.

I showed you all part of this wall in me "Q is for Quaint" post.

I tweaked it by adding pictures of hubby and I when we were three.

And no room of my is complete without adding some transferware.

The color is from Benjamin Moore's "Wythe Blue" swatch.

It is the lightest color tinted at 3/4 strength. The backs of the bookshelves are painted the darkest color on the swatch-I think it is Paladian Blue. So far I'm loving the blue.

I want to add some more throw pillows and possibly hang some more plates, but for the most part I'm content with the room!

I'm on fall break this week. I'm hoping to get a post on my outside decorations and maybe my kitchen. Oh and I have more changes to my laundry closet. Maybe I did get some things accomplished while hubby was away folding his clothes and shining his boots!

T is for Tour

For the last post of "T" week I am going to give you all a tour of my kids' rooms.

If you haven't figured it out I have three kids, 2 girls and 1 boy. They are 9, 7, and 5.
Some days it feels like I have about 10, I have no idea how that chick on 19 kids and counting does it and keeps smiling. I think she is on medication, but she is probably just a whole lot more of a woman than I am!!

Anyway, I'll start with daughter #1's room, the 9 year old.

This is the view as soon as you walk in the door. She has my old bedroom furniture that I painted white. Here are some elements in her room:

Bench at the end of the bed. I painted it then wiped glaze over it.
It is upholstered in green cheetah looking print.

A #1 has what is considered the "master bedroom" so she has 2 closets.
The doors on one of the closets would NEVER stay closed so I took the doors off and put up these sheets. This works great because she, her sister and friends use it for their dressing room when they play.

Finally this is her bed wall. You can find step by step how I created the "Ode to A's" here. Yes, I do require my kids make their beds everyday.
I read once that if you could do one thing and 80% of your room would be clean would you?
That one thing is make up your bed.
I never used to make my bed until I was well into my 20's and now I cannot go without making it up. Drives me crazy.


On to daughter #2 (or A #2). This is the 7 year old's room:

This is what you see when you first walk in the door.
Yeah, major Pinky Tuscadaro going on.
Those polka dots on her wall are white, pink and silver. The silver looks a little brown in these, but it really is silver.

There is her printer's tray and the dollhouse hand made by her grandfather.

This is the view from the other side of the room. I use the chiffarobe (anyone else use that word?) for the girls dress up stuff.
Please don't ask me to open the door.
All the things are just shoved in the bottom. It's just plain scary.

Finally here is little man's room. You have already seen some of it here.
This is how it looks when you walk in the door.
The tape is where I had a Star Wars puzzle hung up. It fell off. I haven't fixed it yet.
This is about as far as I can take the Star Wars theme. A few pictures. maybe a Yoda pillow.
No comforter, curtains, etc for me.
Sorry about the blurry picture, but I wanted to include the lockers. Oh and that is Star Wars sheets, I try to keep is subtle without being the decorating Nazi.
Finally, I can't show you Little Man's room without including the mighty warrior scripture. You can read more about it on the link above.

There are the kiddos' rooms. They aren't magazine perfect like I would want them, but I also need to remember they are getting old enough to put their own marks on their spaces.
I try to overlook the posters, pictures and random things they love.
As long as they make their beds and not write on the walls I'm good...for the most part.

Thanks for stopping by,

The Decorating Nazi, ooops, I mean

"O Frif-ma-ree"

That is how my youngest daughter used to sing "O Christmas Tree" when she was 2. Precious I'll tell you. For those of you who have kept up with my blogs, two blogs in one week is a major deal. I'll chalk it up to being done with my master's classes for the semester (thank goodness).

I have two big trees in my house and each kid has a tree in his or her room. I have a few favorite ornaments on each tree that I want to share with you.

Here is the "family tree" that is downstairs in the den. On this tree I keep all the cute ornaments that I remind me of the kids and the things they make each year. We have a tradition that I buy an ornament every year that reminds me of something they participated in, did, or said during the past year. Each year when we decorate the tree I tell them the "stories" behind their ornaments.




This ornament is for my youngest daughter. She used to call Winnie the Pooh, "Winnie the Poot." It cracks me up every year!


My step-son is obsessed with Star Wars. This ornament represents him. He also used to call these two characters "Dark Vadar and Soda."


This is probably the ugliest ornament on the tree, but it has the sweetest memories. One year, my oldest daughter spent a day or so at Vanderbilt Childrens' Hospital. She turned out to be fine, but it was a little scary for a few days. At any rate, while she was on the mend, she and I made these bead ornaments. These ornaments remind me of those days with her, but they also remind me of my youngest daughter who managed to shove 8 of these beads up her nose!!


This ornament means a lot to me because it used to hang on my grandmother's tree. My sister-in-law passed it down to me a few years ago (thanks Elise!) and I am so proud to hang it on my tree every year.


I also hang pictures (in frames) and tuck unframed pictures inside the tree.



Like many of you saw yesterday, upstairs in the living room I have my Christopher Radko tree. To see more information about that tree and the rest of my house click here. I kind of become the "Tree Nazi" over this tree. I don't let the kids help hang the ornaments and (depending on the day) they are lucky if they can even look at it (just kidding, sort of :) ).


This is the first Radko I ever got, it was given to me by a dear friend.


Here are some other favorites. I typically like the ornaments that are funky shapes, not necessarily the "themed" ornaments.



Please note the toile ribbon and toile tree skirt. Have I mentioned I love toile, well, red toile??

I love flowers and sticks sprouting from the tops of my trees. I do; however, need to come up with a way to get more light in the top of the tree so my topper is not a big black spot.


Here are more pictures of the trees in the kids' rooms:

Oldest daughter, green and blue tree.




Youngest daughter, pink extravaganza tree. She decorated by herself. Ornament placement makes me laugh.




Little man's room, lego tree. We have some "official" Lego ornaments, but I love the ones hubby made even better.


Official ornament:


Hubby and little man creations:



I just have to share one last picture. You all should appreciate that anything that sits still long enough runs the risk of getting decorated...case in point

Millie and Toto:


Merry Christmas all. Visit these great sites for some wonderful inspiration!

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