what to do, what to do...

Has it really been two months since I last posted? I'm very bad, but things have been a little crazy. After this week, I will finally have an extended period of free time. I'm trying to decide what I want to do for a summer project.

Here are my options:

- Re-do Thurston's room upstairs, which involves ripping down paneling, patching plaster walls, taking down a drop ceiling, re-doing the closet and painting.

- Re-do my stairwell and downstairs hallway, which involves ripping down paneling, seeing what's underneath, sanding and painting the stairs, putting in a new hall light and new flooring, redoing some of the stairs woodwork and taking down the wrought iron railing and painting it.

- Re-finish my living room floor, replacing the door and window trim and baseboards, painting and buying new furniture.

There are probably a dozen other things to do as well, such as replace my front door, put in a new storm door on my side porch, and fix my badly deteriorating front steps.

Any ideas anyone?

squirrel

This fat and sassy squirrel was foraging around in my rose garden last weekend, so I snapped some pictures of him through my window. I love squirrels, they seem so crafty!

However, like many other people worldwide, I'm not sure I'm a big fan of squirrel nudity. Perhaps I should buy him some of these. Only together can we combat squirrel nudity!

spring cleaning, of the outdoor variety

Hello everyone!! Spring has sprung and I'm back to blogging! I hope everyone had a pleasant and productive winter. Mine was crazy crazy crazy, but I emerged relatively unscathed.

I'm in the middle of my Spring break, and I've been spending a lot of time working outside. I never had a chance to get my leaves up in the Fall, as my back was bothering me and then we got early snow. So now, I'm paying the piper.

I've managed to rake out most of the perimeter of my property, trimmed all my rose bushes and got the rose garden all raked out. I'm waiting for the guy who helps me with my lawn to now come and take away all the leaves. The West side of the garage needs some TLC, and I'm trying to figure out my plan of attack there. More to come soon!

By the way, the last picture is what I look like after a few hours of yard-work!

new bedroom rug- thanks IKEA!

So, it has been forever since I have posted, but nothing has really been going on with my house. All of my time as of late has been spent on work, namely my day job teaching high school art and my night time job teaching prospective art teachers how to be art teachers. I'm really enjoying all of it, but I have been insanely busy. I was lucky enough to get away to NYC this past week for a few days with some friends and I had a wonderful time- it was just what I needed. I hadn't been away anywhere for almost 2 years! I was able to go the Metropolitan Museum of Art, eat lots of great food, and thankfully got to have lunch with the fabulous Anna from Door Sixteen!

Yesterday I went to IKEA with my friend Anne to help her look at some kitchen stuff. I found the above rug and thought it would go very well in my bedroom. I really like the way it looks and how it makes the room a little cozier. Plus it was only $45 Canadian!

ps: I still haven't hidden my cords! Forgive me!

my hands are frozen

The above picture of my mom feeding the gulls in Panama City Beach, Florida was taken by my father. They are spending the winter there for the first time in their 43 years of marriage and I'm happy for them.

Even though I'm FROZEN here! It's -6 here!!!

So, my parents are soaking up the sun, and I miss them, but I've been insanely busy.

I'm going to be teaching a class at a local university starting this coming Monday and I'm super excited/nervous! I will be teaching prospective art teachers how to teach art. I think I'm going to really enjoy this and I'm sure I'll learn a lot in the process.

So, I haven't accomplished much on the home front, but I'm hoping to get back into after my new class starts. I still have decorating to do!

holiday aftermath

I love this picture of me because this is how I look every morning when I get up, regardless of the day. This is me at my parents house Christmas morning. I actually had a wonderful time with my family! I hope everyone else had a wonderful and restful holiday! I still have a week off, and thankfully my back is feeling much much better! I was hoping to get some skiing in, but we have had a stretch of several days with the temperature ranging from the low 50's to the low 60's so all the snow is gone for the time being. I'm sure we will get more soon though, after all this is Upstate New York.

I'm still working on finishing touches for my bedroom, I got sidetracked because of my back injury. I'm hoping to finally get that dresser upstairs before I go back to work. I also need to figure out what I want for artwork and for a rug on the floor. All in good time.

Throughout the winter I will be posting more but not always about house related things, as I don't have a lot of time to undertake very many big projects during the winter. I do want to keep in touch with all the great people who come here and I am enjoying hearing what you have to say. I will be talking more about the things that influence my style and some other home related things.

Believe me, I always have plenty to say!

the holidays are upon us

Hello everyone. Sorry for the absence of posts as of late, things have been nutty. Report card time has just passed, I re-injured my back (I had a bad fall two winters ago) and have been laid up a lot of the time.

Despite all this I am excited for the holidays! I'm looking forward to spending time with my family and with friends I haven't seen in a while. I'm also hoping to get out and do some cross-country skiing over my vacation once I get my back rested up.

I took some pictures a while ago of my finished upstairs hallway with the intent of posting them here but then basically got insanely busy and forgot. Thankfully Anna reminded me of them a few days ago! I'm so pleased with the space now, it's amazing what a dew inches here and there can do to increase the feeling of space!

new bed throw

I found this bed throw at T.J. Maxx for only $10! It really adds a pop of color in the room and is so warm and cozy for taking naps! Chloe and Thurston love it too!

(Yes, I know I haven't hidden my cords yet, I can't find the cord clips I need anywhere around here!)

it's curtains for you!

My curtain rings came and they make such a difference to me! They really do make them look so much better (Thank you for the suggestion Anna!).

I finally found a rod for the bedroom closet that I liked. I looked everywhere for a rod that could mount in the opening but I couldn't find anything except for crappy tension rods and my experience with them in the past has not been good. I think once the curtain is shortened it will look excellent and I love how it ties in with the light shade and the shears.

Edit- I'm going to buy more rings for the closet curtain, I don't think there are enough right now.

mirror mirror on the wall...

Does a decent full length mirror for under $50 exist? If so could someone point it out? My nice new bedroom rug is beginning to look more and more like a dream...

no go on the dresser

My friend Edd and I tried, but the dresser could not make it around the 90 degree turn in my stairs. It's about 2 inches too wide. So, I'll be contacting someone tomorrow to see if they can take it apart and put it back together upstairs for me. Hopefully this will be an option, if not, then I will have to buy one and bye bye awesome rug.

the dresser

This is the dresser that I keep mentioning that has had to live in my yet unseen by all of you downstairs bedroom because it wouldn't fit up the stairs. This has made clothing storage very inconvenient for me. I'm going to make an attempt again tomorrow to get it up there since I have removed the carpet and padding from the stairs since my last attempt to try to get it up there. I hope it works because I really like it and it complements my bed well. Plus I need it so I can have clothes in my newly remodeled bedroom! Wish me luck!

Pulling things together...

(Click to see it bigger!)

I guess this is where I'm supposed to step in and start talking about decor stuff, right??

Adam, I did a little mock-up of some things you can do to make this corner of your room feel more finished.

1. Blue would be a nice color for a brightly-colored throw. This is the RITVA from IKEA, and it's only $10.

2. Please excuse the generic flower photo, but I wanted to show you the scale I think you need in that corner. Also, don't hang anything too high!! In general, artwork should be hung 57-60" on center (i.e., a line drawn at 57 inches up the wall would bisect the artwork horizontally). Trust me.

3. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, HIDE YOUR CORDS! The ones at your bedside can be run down the back leg of the table and bundled under the bottom shelf so you don't see anything at all. For the clock on the windowsill, try wrapping the cord with white ribbon and using white cable clips to control its placement. (Yes, I am psychotic.)

4. Move the clock on the windowsill over to the side, next to the plant. (Again, I am psychotic.) Then it won't look like you're trying to make the clock a focal point. With lots of small items, it's good to display them in clusters rather than spread out singly. Benita has a good post on displaying groups here.

5. I know you're not sure yet if you can have a rug, but I think it would add a lot to the space. This one is on sale at CB2 for $200.

6. I'm still voting for no curtain! Your window is so gorgeous without any dressing.

7. You need some cute pets. Might I suggest Thurston and Chloe? :) :)

p.s. I edited your last few posts so the images aren't getting cut off...

my window is no longer naked

I got my new Waverly Home Damask shears and my Thomas O'Brien Acorn drapery rod up tonight. I was nervous about drilling into my new walls but everything went ok. I think they frame the windows very nicely. Now I need to decide on artwork!

a good night's sleep

I finally have my bed back together with my new bedding from IKEA and Macy's and I haven't slept so well in months! I'm so comfortable and warm at night (so are Chloe and Thurston). The room is really starting to take shape now. I'm also in love with my IKEA Hemnes nightstand and lamp from CB2. I feel so much more comfortable in this room now compared to before I renovated it. I still new to find a throw for my bed!

DONE (well almost)

So the painting is done! What an ordeal, but yet so satisfying to finally be wrapping this project up! I can't begin to tell everyone the things that I learned throughout this undertaking, especially the things that I never thought I could do but did! Over the next few days I will be adding more posts and more info about what I did as I begin to move back into my room tomorrow. There is still some things I need to do that I'm trying to figure out, and I will be turning to all of you for some advice. For now take a look at the freshly painted and remodeled space and look back to here to see the before pics!

To see the pictures larger go here (I'm having problems with blogger and getting it to show my images the size I want with out cropping them in the blog.)

the finish line is in sight

I'm sorry for the lack of posts lately, I've been under the weather plus caught up in the election frenzy. By the way, I must say how much it rocks that Barack Obama is our President Elect! It really gives me hope for some necessary change in our country.

Tonight my mom came over and helped me tape off all the trim that I painted over the weekend so I can paint my walls and ceiling. After that I can paint the floor (hopefully Saturday) then move back in Monday or Tuesday. I can't believe this project is almost done and how much I have learned throughout this whole process. I am so happy with the way the room is looking and I can't wait to see how it will look with furniture and bedding!

old man winter you sneaky jerk!

This was the view outside my front door this morning! I know winter is on it's way, but I wasn't prepared for it to show up last night. The top broke out of my Japanese Lilac tree, hopefully it will look alright when the snow melts and it bounces back. I also got a snow day today, something that never happens in October!

You can see a few more pics here.

sneak peek

Here is a little glimpse at how the priming is going in my bedroom. Let me just say that textured walls now go to the top of my list of things I really dislike painting.

tight squeeze

It is a pretty tight squeeze in the upstairs part of my house right now. I have finished almost all of the caulking in my bedroom and will be priming when I get home from work tomorrow. The closer I get to the end of all this, the worse the anticipation of being done is! I miss my bed so much! So do Chloe and Thurston!