Best Gift Ever

When it came time to figure out what we would do with our third, and quite tiny bedroom, we tossed around ideas like using it as an office, playroom, library, or school room. But when it came down to it my hubby insisted that I use it for a workroom for all my business and crafty things going on. I was most excited about the idea of freeing up some space in the garage that's filled with my props and crafty things.  I'm also looking forward to not using my dining table for whatever project I have in the works.

I've just barely started working on this room. I basically grabbed whatever I could from the garage and threw it in here. The only thing that will actually stay when all is said and done are the white cubbies (more on those later), the crate hanging on the wall above the cubbies, and the rug.

The room has quite a way to go, and it needs some major organizing, but I've already enjoyed it so much. I bought that painting at a thrift store for $6 and hung it on a nail already in the wall. I'll find a better home for it in time. The pile of white frames are a few of the ones that will be on the wall of frames I mentioned in this post.

Below are a couple of shelves we made out of old crates. I got the idea over here. They're cluttered with random items that needed a place to sit... they're not staying either, too big for the space.

Now for the part of the room I love, love, love! I think my favorite thing is seeing all my little trinkets and knickknacks all tucked away in cozy cubbies just waiting to be used. The down side... they really don't hold much stuff, not for what I need anyway. They're staying. I'll just have to figure out another way to store all my stuff. The cubbies have a little history of their own and got a mini-makeover, but I'll post that another day.

 Well, if you can ignore the clutter on the floor that needs a home, messy desk, and random stuff on the walls, I really think you can see the potential. No?  Well, just keep checking and hopefully I can pull it together!

Bathrooms And Other Stuff

We're nearing the end of this home tour, well, sorta. I'm still going to show you my workroom and our master bedroom. But first I need to finish putting away the huge pile of laundry in there so I can actually take pictures of it.

Up next are our bathrooms and hall. Our house has 3 smallish bedrooms, and 1 3/4 baths. Our girls have claimed the 3/4 bathroom as "their bathroom" (even though they bathe in ours). They will walk across the entire house at 2 am to use their bathroom instead of using our bathroom which is right outside their bedroom door. I think it's cute. Kids love having places just for them.

There isn't much going on in this little bath. The sink area got cut off due to how small this bathroom is to photograph but you're not missing anything, it's pretty standard. The shower curtain is an old curtain panel I hung with a tension rod. This shower is never used so I wasn't worried about having a shower curtain that would need to hold up to moisture. The towels are from Target and Gracie added the little birds nest and lace doily on the toilet; I liked it so much I kept it there.

I made the garland above the window out of old lace, fabric scraps, cupcake liners, and whatever else I had lying around that was similar in color.

I just went and snapped a photo (with my iphone... new camera came today, but I don't know how to work it yet) of the inside of the little bathroom cabinet to show you all.. baskets of washcloths, toothbrushes and toothpaste, stacked hand towels on top shelf, and little knickknacks added in to make the girls smile. Can you see my little brass quails below? I love 'em. I've been oddly drawn to brass animals lately!

Now on to the main bathroom... 

I love using pretty jars and containers for useful storage. The amber colored glass jar was $2 at a garage sale; I use it to store q-tips. I found the glass bottle with bird cork at Michael's for a few bucks and the other glass container with the pretty floral design on the top was a gift from a friend, and it holds some of my jewelry.

I had been searching and searching for a wire 3-tier basket for quite some time. They were always too expensive or too small. Then I stumbled upon this one at Marshalls for about $20 so it needed to come home with me! It holds extra toilet paper and bath toys.

Above the toilet is a shelf that holds old Mason jars full of cotton balls and makeup sponges.  There is also a tin bucket (from the $1 section at Target) full of washcloths.

Here is our tiny, not-terribly-exciting-but-I-love-it, hall. There's a giant canvas that I covered in fabric. I used thumbtacks to attach pictures of our daughters or recent artwork they've done. At Christmas time, the fabric changes, artwork comes off, and Christmas cards are hung on it.

There you have it! I better go do some laundry now or you all will never get to see my bedroom.

Simple Little Kitchen...

This whole blog home tour has been interesting, in a fun way (check out our girls' room & living area too!). I didn't realize how weird it would be to share every inch of our home with the world (or the few people that actually read this), but it's been quite motivating to get all those projects going that I've been procrastinating about. Next up is the kitchen. It's very standard, not updated with fancy appliances or granite counters, but it's quite functional and lends itself perfectly to cooking with my girls.

Our kitchen is never, I mean NEVER, this empty. I had just returned from camping with my family when Kristin said she would take some pictures of the house. I literally moved camping gear and dirty laundry from one spot to another so she could snap some photos while our girls played in the other room. Below is the view of the kitchen when you enter the house and look left. There are usually step stools and snacks sprinkled all over but here's what it looks like on a clean day.

The baskets hanging from the cabinets are actually baskets like these but we snapped off the hook part that would slide on the shelf and attached them to the under side of the cabinets for added storage.  I'd love to find some cool metal or wood ones someday.

Since we had just gotten home from camping things were pretty sparse in my kitchen, but usually these baskets are full of different fruits, veggies, potatoes, and onions.

Can you see the wooden spoon with the black and white handle in the utensil basket below? My brother-in-law gave that to me when he returned home from Kenya a couple of years ago... needless to say I was kinda surprised when I saw them at Anthropologie recently. Gotta love a brother-in-law with good taste!

I keep my pot holders hanging right next to the stove. Below them are my olive oil, pepper, and 2 types of salt in the small ceramic container; gray salt & kosher flake salt (I also like to cook quite a bit and I love good quality salt!).

My flour, sugar, and corn meal are kept handy in large glass jars with metal scoops in them. The two larger ones I got at Walmart and the smaller one with the cornmeal is from Ikea.

This is the little area to the right of my sink. I store my kitchen towels and dish soap in the basket. Above that on the wall is a rack I got from Ikea a couple of years back. It houses my kitchen scissors, recipe cards, matches, and any other little items that need a home. We don't have a junk drawer in this kitchen so this helps with keeping all the random things organized.

I've got a big cabinet getting redone in my garage, it will go on the right side of the kitchen next to the fridge in that open space. It's another good revamp I'm excited to share, but it will probably take me another week or two to finish and get the hardware I ordered for it.
I just found the ugly "before" pictures of the dining buffet. I'll put that up very soon.

The Room Of Many Purposes

I'm continuing with our home tour. We've already shared our girl's room, you can see it here. This time I'll share our living room... which is also our dining room, library, school, and computer area. It's a pretty large space (considering our house is modestly sized) that is completely open, which makes it a challenge to fill and still look like it has a nice cohesive flow.
I still have so much I would like to do to the area (like actually hang something on the walls!). So these can be the "before" or "during" photos and I'll continue to share as we add to the space. And since this space is still unfinished I thought I would briefly share the plans for each little area... though I'm sure those plans will change as I get going, that's how I work!
Here is the view of the room when you walk in the front door (the couch is not as close as this picture may seem, there's a good 10 feet before you actually get to the couch).
I've been hunting for fabric to reupholster the plaid chair below and fabric to use on some throw pillows for the couch.

I do love our dining table. We got it off Craigslist for $300 which is a great deal considering it came with the table (which has a leaf you can add to make it a big square), 6 black chairs, bench, and the buffet on the other side of the room. I love Craigslist! I got the 2 white chairs from Ikea just to break up all the black at the dining area.

All of the walls are pretty bare, mainly due to my indecisive nature, but that's changing soon! 

The wall surrounding the buffet will soon be filled with a collage of picture frames, mirrors, and whatever else I can find to add to it to fill the wall.

My husband and I stumbled across this buffet sitting on a street corner with a "Free" sign on it. It's come a long way. Originally it was forest green and gold speckled paint... I'll put a picture in another post so you can see what I'm talking about. I've been thinking of painting it yellow (you can see a spot below where I tested a color, but I still haven't found just the right shade).

Below is the living room and the library/computer/school area. I would like to sell the white bookcase and fill the other wall completely with bookshelves so all the books my husband has can go on shelves and have room to breath. Plus, we have some serious organizing to do in preparation for homeschooling next year.

The 2 chairs below will be getting a coat of paint in the near future. I'd also like to put a braided jute rug in this area; like this one, but way cheaper!

The is the wall opposite of the wall with the white bookcase. It is equally as blah as the other walls... I have no idea what is going here yet...

The 2 pictures below are both very dear to me. The one in the back is a picture of my daughters, Gracie and Ruby, taken by my friend Kristin. The other is a painting done by another dear friend, Jen Dees, who gave this to us one year for Christmas. It's quite nice having such talented friends!

That pretty much sums up our "in progress" living area. I'm looking forward to getting some stuff on the walls. I'm now going to go hunt for the original picture of the cream buffet. I'll post that soon.

It's Just So Charming

I usually like to wait and show pictures of projects I'm working on after they're completely finished and just the way I want them.  But, for the sake of this blog (and wanting people to actually read it), I'm going to do a tour of our home even though it's a work in progress.  
My friend, Kristin (I may have mentioned her on here before!), came over and took some pictures for me since we're in the process of buying a camera at the moment.
I flip flopped on whether I would show my favorite or least favorite room first. I decided I'll share our little girls' room first since it's my most favorite room in the house, it's just oh so charming.  Maybe once you see it you won't think the rest of the house is quite as boring as it may be (I've got some great things planned).
Here it is!

Everything two little girls need packed into a little room.  My style always tends to be a little bit of old and a little bit of new, mixed in with stuff we make, that's how I like things!
I took the large doors off the girls' closet cause they were too hard for them to open on their own.  In their place I added sheer white and grey flowered curtains.  The girls have their baby bed and kitchen in there as well, the rest of their toys and books are stored in baskets under the bed.  Stacked on the shelves are some of their larger toys and baskets full of scarves, tights and hand-me-down shoes that don't quite fit Ruby (my youngest) yet.

I keep a few dresses and sweaters hung, other then that everything fits nicely into the dresser drawers and baskets.  The white baskets with their names on them are their pajama baskets.  I like to keep them out in the open so it's easy for them to grab a pair at night.

I made the curtains, spruced up an Ikea mirror (more on that coming up), and sewed some pillows.

My hubby made these bookshelves, they've been so perfect and I enjoy them every time I see them.  We modified these building plans which were pretty simple to use and they hold a good amount of books which is a must in this house!

Ribbon strung on two World Market hooks is perfect for hanging the girls' artwork.  And the little chalkboard easel was a great find from a yard sale - $10.

Close up pic of the DIY curtains.

And lastly, THE bed!  My mom saw this in an alley (in a sketchy neighborhood), told me about it, and we went to get it right away!  It was very dark, old, nasty wood but the lines were so great I knew it needed a home.  It's a King size bed frame. I wanted to use it for my girls' bed but there was no way we could fit a king size bed in this room, so, after a while I realized a full size bed turned sideways is the same width as a king size bed, we shortened the side rails, painted it a pale blue and Voilà!!  Perfect, chunky, short & wide little girls bed that looks like it popped right out of a fairy tale!

Well, there it is.  I hope you enjoyed it.  Let me know if there was anything I missed that you were interested in.  Up next, I'm thinking it will be the living/dining/school/library/computer area.