Bedroom redecorating planning begins!

Happy weekend, everyone!

We were sick yesterday. JJ and I. He threw up every meal, including one all over me. Lovely! And I left my workout class mid-way through it because I felt nauseous, and then spent the rest of the day laying around in bed or on the couch. I hate wasting a Satruday like that. (How come the 24-hour flu always has to fit on a day off, amIright?)

One thing on my to-do list: get my bedroom in order so I can take photos of it and send them to our painter. I'm fairly certain we will be redecorating the bedroom next month, and we're getting ready now. I've been furiously pinning fabrics I like for curtains, paint colors, inspiring bedroom photos, cute bedding options, etc. But it's getting close to decision-making time. I thought I'd share a few of the things I am weighing and I'd love to hear your feedback. Oh and I'll upload some "before" pictures of the room this week, so you can see what we're working with.

We have two closets that are door-less and use a curtain to hide all the stuff shoved within them. I'm approaching the whole redecorating process by trying to start with an inspiring fabric for new closet curtains, which I'll make. I figure I'll find that fabric and then base my paint and even flooring on it, as well as new accessories. So finding just the right fabric is No. 1 on the priority list! Here are some of the favorites I've collected so far.

We have dark wood trim in the room that I'm a little confused about. Paint it white? Leave it? I'm not sure. But I do think this fabric would pick up the richness of it well. We want to have three colors on the walls -- a neautral, a pop of color on one accent wall, and potentially a light-color on the ceiling.

Sherwin-Williams has a great tool called "Chip It!" that allows you to put a picture into it and find a bunch of matching paint colors. Amazing, right? So you can see some of the paint options for each fabric.

 I am leaning toward a blue-green-yellow color scheme. I love decorating with blue and figure, eh, why not, even if I already have two other blue rooms in my house. That's the kind of thing that ties a house together, right? This is an Anna Maria Horner print, and I'm really loving all of her fabrics right now. They're so playful and bright.

 Here are some paint options for that one!

 The third option I'm looking at. I really love the richness of this print. I think with a white wall it would really pop. And I could see a really dark accent wall playing nicely with this.

What do you like of these options? I'd love to hear! And I'll post some "before" bedroom pictures hopefully in the next couple of days.

My new green door

Thanks to all who voted for me in the Stitched in Color Celebrate Color contest! I did not win, but I can't begrudge the two winners. They were both really fabulous, and if I wasn't totally all about winning fabric for myself, I probably would have voted for one of them as well. So congrats!

Also, a few people have emailed me asking how to make the rosettes. I followed this tutorial. You basically cut a circle out of felt -- the bigger the circle, the bigger your finished flower will be. Then cut the circle into a spiral. Roll the spiral up from one end and glue it at the end. That's it! If you cut the circle with scallops or points (like a sun) you wind up with some different types of petals and variations in your look. It's fun to experiment, and see what you end up with. I hot glued my rosettes to pieces of scrap felt, and then hot glued those right to the wreath form. That's it! Here's my original post.

By the way, the wreath is looking lovely these days on my new green door. Yup, I listened to you! I wanted to paint the door orange or yellow... But you said, no Krista, no. Green. Green is it. I think you were right.

Here she is!

The color is Saguaro by Sherwin-Williams. It took one goat of grey primer and three coats of paint to get a nice, even color. I did the first two coats last weekend, including one Sunday, a day I had 50 people over for a party. Ha ha ha! I am so smart.

Here's the before pic, and then the after.

I love it. Especially with the pumpkins and mums! Thanks for pointing me to green, friends!

Painting my front door.... yellow?

First off...

Say whaaaaaa? Seven months old? Meeeeee?!

Isn't that the cute?

I thought so. Had to share. I can't believe I got him holding his own sign AND looking my way.

OK, onto other things. I've been a busy little social bee for the last week. We had a huge event here in town called Arts, Beats and Eats. We had friends in from out of town. Family, too. I had a girl's night out with my dear friend who is deserting me following her dreams and moving to China. And we have a wedding coming on Friday night! My brother-in-law is getting hitched! All this is to say: in my sewing nook, the only noise you'll hear these days is crickets. And spiders. Do spiders make noise? Anyway, I have nothing to show you and that's a bummer!

But I do need your opinions. I've been thinking about painting my front door. It's white. I want to jazz it up. My first thought was orange. I pinned a bunch of orange doors, and I love them. The problem is, my house is about half orange brick. So there is a clashing issue, as well as a that's-just-too-much-orange issue.

So then I thought yellow? Maybe? Then I just told my husband to grab whatever paint chips inspired him the last time he was at Home Depot.

Take a look and tell me what you think.
 

I think it would need to be dark. Like, the bottom of any of those chips. And I'm leaning toward yellow. (Or blue, but my husband has vetoed blue.) Although if it wasn't for the brick, I'd truly still want orange. 

What do you like?

Idea for displaying kiddie art

First things first: If you haven't entered my giveaway for a cute handmade pouch and vintage-sewing-pattern-coaster, hop over here to do so! 

A few weeks ago, my mother-in-law and I were discussing ways to corner off my sewing nook from the rest of the basement. I was thinking curtains. She brought up a room divider. She said she'd always wanted one at her old house, where the dining room was set right off the kitchen. She thought it would be nice on Thanksgiving to pull it out, especially one of the dividers with built-in picture frames.  That way, she could hide the mess in the kitchen AND showcase pictures from Thanksgiving of yore. Cute idea, right? And for my purposes,  it would be a little less tacky (OK, a lot less tacky) to have a room divider than a bunch of Ikea curtains hanging from clothespins from my basement ceiling, right?

I agreed. But I already had the curtains. And I'm nothing if not impatient. So the idea was tabled.

That was until two days later. On the way home from working out, I passed a garage sale. Naturally, I pulled over. Can't pass a garage sale if I have cash in my pocket and no kids in my car. I wandered up and looked at a few tables before I saw it -- a room divider! Not just a room divider. A heavy wooden one with the very sort of picture frames my MIL had dreamt about!

Crazy, right?

Better yet, the price tag was $3.

$3!! Are you kidding? I just did an Amazon search and saw similar dividers that cost between $150 and $200.

I got my $3 out sooooo fast and got out of there before he could change his mind.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it until it dawned on me. Kiddie art! No longer will I be all, "Where do I put this.... interesting... scribbled.... mess.... I mean, work of art?" Now I know!

The watercolors are Luke's, with a helping hand from Uncle Matthew. The black and whites are Luke's photography.

HAHA. Just kidding. Apparently I need more kiddie art.

But I'm excited to fill the whole thing up, and I know that'll be easy with preschool starting soon. Now my sewing nook is a little more contained and I have a nice way to display my kid's art. All for $3. If you were here, you could totally five-high me now.

Since I am not the only one with brilliant art displaying ideas, I went on Pinterest to find more inspiration for you. You're welcome.

Take a looksie.

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How do you display your kiddie art? Or maybe a more appropriate question here: if your sewing space is out in the open somewhere like your dining room, do you do anything to "hide" it?

Gallery wall progress, update 1

I've mentioned a few times now that I'm working on a gallery wall for our dining room. I'm getting some progress done on that and thought I'd share!

First off, here is the dining room as it looks now.

 As you can see, I didn't even pick up to take these photos. Lazy, aren't I? And how sweet is my husband? There he is giving our son breakfast while I do this nonsense. And that beautiful arrangement of flowers? My anniversary present! We had our five-year anniversary on Friday, and he always gets me a bouquet in our wedding colors (pink and orange). Sweet, eh? He's a keeper.

Anyway, so here you see the two bare walls of my dining room. I am still not sure which wall should get the display. The first photo is the wall you can see from the adjoining family room, so my first thought was to put it there. It would get the most notice. Any opinions? The other wall is something you see from the kitchen door and the hallway.

Here's my collection of frames, all painted white. That large one came from a garage sale last weekend for $5. Niiiice. What do you think of this arrangement? Just trying stuff out! My husband thinks they are too close together, but I'm thinking that's how a gallery wall is supposed to be. Thoughts?

I'm not sure whether I want to add a few more frames or not. And then there is the biggest question of all: what is going in all of these frames? I honestly don't know. I've thought about just doing photos. I've thought about buying a bunch of art prints. I've thought about doing some DIY using fabric. Or a mix of all of the above. I'm melting in a pool of indecision here. But I am collecting inspiration -- prints I like, photos I might use. Want to see?

Here's a collage that includes a bunch of photos I've taken. I tried to single out pictures with a lot of blue or orange, since that's our family room/dining room color scheme. If I did all photos, I could select up to 10 of these. Or I could just pick a couple.

I think I am more likely to do prints or a mix than all photos, though. I've been scouring etsy and 20x200.com for prints I love. Here's what I've "pinned" via Pinterest so far.

Owl No. 1 from 20x200.com

Chili dog with everything via etsy.com

Metro Detroit Map via etsy.com

Teapots A4 print via Etsy.com

Coffee Time Mixed Media canvas on Etsy.com

Ideal bookshelf from 20x200.com

In the Library on Etsy.com

Typewriter print from Z Gallerie

OK, I love them all. And they all have something meaningful to me, which is the best part. Things we love, places we love, things we love to do. I'd love them all, but that would add up to some big bucks. So I'd need to pick and choose my favorites. So dang hard!

For the oval frame, I'm thinking a DIY silhouette is in order. I wonder if I could squeeze both boys' heads into one frame? And for the largest frame, if I decide not to go with a purchased print, I think doing something DIY could be a good money-saving option. But what?

I'd love your feedback! What makes for a good gallery wall in your opinion? I'm hoping to have mine done in the next couple of weeks. We're hosting a family party on June 12. That means I need to make decisions now if I'm going to order anything. So please, help me get off of indecision island!

Spring cleaning, take one!

I have never done a real "spring cleaning" before. Of course, I've never been on maternity leave in the spring either. Now, don't get me wrong, it's not like being on maternity leave with a 2.5 year old and a baby is a vacation. I am busy still. But there is something about being home that, despite how frantic these two boys keep me, makes me want to fix everything in my sight up. Little corners of my home that I did not give a damn about are suddenly calling to me, insisting that I clean them. For the first time since we moved in more than four years ago.

Yes, Betty Homemaker I am not, not when it comes to cleaning. Want an example of what a slob I can be? When I was a teen, I used to take cans of peaches to my room and eat the fruit right outta the can. Then I'd leave the can in some corner or some shelf and go about the rest of my business (you know, strolling the mall for troll dolls, practicing my very important lines as a Salvation Army marcher in the musical Guys and Dolls). I'd leave the can there for days. I know... ew. Then I'd rediscover it when a cloud of fruit flies formed around it. Ew EW. My mom would just shake her head and tell me I needed to stop being a slop. I remember my defense: "But mom, this is just who I am!" I think in a way, I was right!

But I'm trying to clean up my act. And my basement.

Yesterday, it began. And it started with this icky corner of my laundry room.

Isn't it pretty?

Here's another look.

You're scared something dead is behind that door, right?

I decided yesterday I could not take looking at this ugly weird white-painted scraggly wooded wall anymore. So I opened up a can of yellow paint, a sample size I purchased in the fall when we were picking colors for our dining room.

I didn't even tell my husband. He was upstairs with Luke. J.J. was sleeping. I grabbed my supplies and just went at it, before anyone could stop me.

Here it is in progress. Getting better. I had to run to the paint store to buy a small brush to get into the corners. Once back, I made a decision.... This one wall would not be enough. I am going to have to paint the entire room. Of course, I don't have enough paint for that. And there is stuff (read: the mountains of laundry I ignore!) everywhere. I can't exactly tackle the rest right away. I guess there is a reason people usually plan their painting adventures.

Oh well. I did as much as I could with the paint I had on hand, finishing up during nap time.

And here is what I see today when I pull my clothes out of the dyer:

Better, right?

I am slowly going to tackle the rest of the room. Then? Maybe the floor. It's super ugly and stained and ick. I wonder if I could put something else right over it. Or paint it? Not sure. And eventually, a drop ceiling? Cute laundry-themed art for the walls? This is the problem with making one part of a yucky room look better. Soon you are renovating and redoing everything.

But for such an impulsive move, I have to say, I'm happy so far! Not bad for a slob, eh?

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