Letter and Picture Wall

For some time now I've been working on the large wall in our hallway. I had several pictures of our family hung up there but it just wasn't right. You know that feeling - right? It's ok...but just not quite right - yet. 

Well, I saw this post over at Finesse Your Nest and I loved what she did with the letters on the wall of her staircase. I thought it was unique and inspired. So, as all fans will do, I copied the idea drew inspiration from her wall and added the letters in with our family photos. The pictures on that wall were already only in black and white. All the frames are black and at least half were purchased at Goodwill or a thrift store and started out life another color all together - so I spray painted them black. 

I tried to take the pictures without a flash but...there is just not enough light in the hallway because we have an old house and the husband is rewiring the hallway right now. 

See...

That is where the hall light is supposed to be and will be...hopefully...soon.

Anyway - then I picked up the different letters of our names when I saw them on clearance and such and spray painted most of them black and a couple of them Heirloom White - just to break up all the black.

Pics with the flash on

And yes...the dog crate is in the hallway because we don't have any other place to put it just yet....so I incorporated it into the decorating...

And I put a Family sign on it. heehee...you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes - right?

So the next project I'm working on starting today is the kitchen island. It is really a microwave cart and I've been using it as an island. I bought it 10 years ago at a garage sale for $25 and it is by Ethan Allen. It's worked really well but it's stark white. And it needs to be a different color. So I'm thinking I'm gonna paint it black...or maybe a dark espresso color and then sand the edges...

here is a quick before pic....

more to come on this later in the week...hopefully!

I'm linking up with the Talented Tuesday blog party over at My Frugal Family!

Dining room previews and cat food

What?

Yep, that's what I named this post. Why you ask? They are the two things that have dominated my past week...

Seriously.

Wait - I'll explain.

Ok, so here are some preliminary pictures of the dining room - which is the first thing that was in the forefront of last week for me.

I stress again, preliminary.

The furniture is not moved back into place, there are no window treatments up yet and NOTHING has been hung up in there. Yet. I hope you can get a feel for the color. It really is a chameleon shade. Sometimes it is more green. Sometimes more yellow/gold. Sometimes much more gray. It is Burlap - Sherwin Williams.

Here we go...

This is the wall next to the built in China Cabinet. See - the radio is still sitting there from when we were painting. Must paint to Classic Rock. 

Next to one of the windows. AND some fake window treatments. It is a sheet. I was trying to get a feel for a White window treatment. I liked the feeling I got. A lot. 

Just another shot of the room - the corner between the two large windows. And part of the ceiling. And my $17.99 clearance lamp from Hobby Lobby. hee hee. Love me some clearance stuff - especially when it was originally marked $89.99. 

These are of the other corner of the room. Oh, I love this color so much more than the RED. It isn't YELLING at me anymore. It was angry before. Now it is much more calm. Peaceful. Serene even - even with all the mess. Ok, sorry, I went off on a tangent. I'm back. 

The second shot also has the other China Cabinet in it - the one I want to move to the kitchen and PAINT. I got no responses on that one...maybe the jury is still out. 

Looking out through the Dining room french doors into the living room. You can also see the door leading into the kitchen on the right. And Piper's sippy cup sitting on the table. 

Oh, speaking of Piper....

here she is....with the second thing that dominated my last week

See that? She's getting a handful of cat food. 

Yep.

I feed her ALL THE TIME real food, yummy food. And every.single.time. she is on the floor anywhere near the kitchen...she makes a BEELINE for the dang cat food. 

And does this

always before I can get to her. I am continually digging cat food out of her mouth. I know. 

 *shudder* 

I can't even talk about it. Which is why I'm blogging about it I guess. *shaking head*

All I can figure out is that it must be good because she will refuse Banana. But loves this stuff. 

At least she hasn't discovered the litter box. Yet.

The Dining Room is Painted!

*happy dance*

It took us about 5 hrs total yesterday and 2 coats - but IT IS DONE!

*sigh*

And I LURVE it! LOVE LOVE LOVE the color! It is so much more relaxing in there now! No more RED yelling at me...just a nice, relaxing, chameleon green/gray/gold color that I find soothing and understated and pretty.

I'll post pics soon if I can get the camera to take a good shot of it (the lighting today is all wrong because it's raining and cloudy and the light is gray and flat) AND I'm out of batteries so the camera is not working right now - DOH!

Anyways - off to Walmart in a bit to do the grocery shopping for the next two weeks and I'll try and get some shots of the new color when I get back.

I've got the Pioneer Woman's pot roast in the oven. I know you know the Pioneer Woman. You do, right??? Everyone knows her in blog land. But if you don't - you MUST get to know her right now. Go here. And then go to her cooking section and make everything in there. I'm serious. Just do it and ask no more questions. You and everyone you feed will thank you and me and the Pioneer Woman for doing it - all at once.

I also have a bizillion loads of laundry to get done today and a baby girl who had a temp of 103.2 at 4:30 this morning...so, uh, now that I'm really thinking about it, maybe those pics won't show up until tomorrow!!!

Hope everyone has a great Sunday.

To Paint or Not To Paint

that is my questions for you peeps.

Here's my dilemma.

We have this one wall in our kitchen and it really has no purpose. We didn't put cabinets on that side for two reasons - 1. we were basically out of money from having just gutted the kitchen and putting cabinets everywhere else...and 2. we weren't sure if we were going to maybe knock that wall out and open the kitchen to the living room. (please excuse the Diego Rescue Backpack in the lower right of the photo AND the tools all over the stove. They are not, in fact, supposed to be there but the hubby and the 3 yr old seem to use this part of my kitchen as a "catch all" dumping ground. )

SO I just made do. The stove is an old Chambers that was in the house when we bought it. It probably still works although it isn't hooked up to anything right now. We just moved it over there b/c I thought it was cool and old and I didn't want to part with it. I store water bottles and capri suns in it now! Anyway - I don't really want to get rid of it yet BUT, truth is, I could use more storage in the kitchen. And it is kinda taking up a large amount of room without a large amount of function. Not a good combo.

Now - for reference - here is picture of our other side of the kitchen - so you can get a feel for the color of the cabinets, etc.

I *tried* resizing 3 times - no idea what is going on here - but you get the idea of what the kitchen looks like.

Here's what I'm wondering. We have this China cabinet in our dining room - the dining room that is currently under Re-DO. This was part of the dining room set that hubby's dad gave us. We didn't buy it or pick it out - it was a freebie.

We already *have* a china cabinet in the dining room that is built in and original to the home. You can see it in these pictures.

Original leaded glass. *swoon* I love this cabinet.

Point is I don't need two. It is cluttering up the space. And it is big and dark. And ...well...I just don' t love it. BUT it was given to us by hubby's father. This was hubby's parent's dining room furniture.

So do I take the doors off, paint it the same creamy color as the existing cabinets, and move it into the kitchen - it could hold my dishes and I could put baskets in the bottom (where the doors are now) and use it for storage. OR should we leave it as is? If we leave it alone it is going to the basement to be stored.

*sigh*

Obviously I'm on the side of painting it and USING it. Hubby is afraid we'll "ruin" it if we paint it. I told him I would rather be using it and loving it instead of having it languish away in storage. I don't know. I need opinions!

I'm linking up to Amanda at Serenity Now's Decorating Dilemma's party!

test post

I love the smell

of a newly painted room. Don't you? Is it just me? Nah, I think there's more peeps like me out there. I like that it says new to me. I also like that it is filled with possibility. It is a room that is about to be something more.

And that is just way cool.

So my dining room isn't actually painted yet. But it IS finally, completely, primed. The red...it is gone.

Buh Bye.

And that is really OK with me. You know you have made the right choice when you walk into the room and it just has the gray primer on the walls and it already feels better.

I even like the gray primer on the walls - how's that for funny? It is already so much calmer and soothing in there to me. Well....it's calmer if I'm ignoring the clutter and the mess and all the furniture scooched around and out of place. And I am doing that - I'm totally ignoring that for right now.

I'm hoping that we'll get it painted by this weekend. But if not - then hopefully by the end of next week.

I primed that entire room by my little ol'self. And while that is not such a big deal...it becomes a big deal when you remember that I'm doing all that while dealing with a 10 month old crawling baby girl AND a 3 yr old who wants desperately to "help mama paint!" The whole priming thing didn't go as fast as I would have liked. I had to go most of it in 30 minute or 1 hr intervals - read while the short people were napping. BUT I finished it today.

some pics of the process

I had just started priming

That is the end of the Red room.

I'm thrilled and relieved. Now I have to start thinking about the slipcovers, the rug, and the window treatments...

OH and I used Sherwin Williams Multi-Purpose Laxtex primer. It only took a little more than half a gallon, 1 coat and it covered that BRIGHT red totally. That stuff ROCKS. I highly recommend it!!!!

More to come on the Redo soooooon!

Follow Friday

Yep - it's Follow Friday!

I'm excited to be a part of this again as I've gained some new followers and discovered some great new blogs! If you haven't linked up yet you should - it is a fabulous way to meet some great new peeps!

This is a short one today as I'm off to Norman to have my hair done. It's been wwaaaayyyyyyy too long since anyone has done anything to it - we're talking six months here - and it's long overdue. I'm having a bit of ME time today. That is a good thing.

Hopefully later today I'll be able to carve out some time for a regular post but for now it's all about Follow Friday and their sponsor Buttons & Blogs

Hope everyone has a great day and I'll try and post some teaser pics later of the dining room re-do!