Monday, May 30, 2011

Lamp Re-style

Some of you may have noticed my fancy new lamp shades in my last post
When I decided I didn't like the blue on the walls I decided i didn't like the green in there either
( in other words I totally scrapped my original plan...what?! A girls allowed to change her mind! )

inspired by this lampshade from Anthropologie(so you know they're proud of it $$$)
I decided to recover them in like fashion

I committed book sacrilege and ripped up the this old dictionary that I got for $1! (gotta love half price books)

first I tried laying the pages in a row-but decided that looked too much like a tacky pleated lampshade circa 1987
and opted to rip and tear to create a more random layout

I modgepodged (with Matte modgepodge) over the paper and then hot glued single fold bias tape around the edges to finish it off! They go very well with my new improved bedroom-and the whole project cost me about $5! Here's the before:
and After!

Tear Down the Wall!




Thats right I took it down! As much as I loved the idea it just wasn't working in the space. See how it just looks cluttery? I felt that this wall was just too big and it felt unbalanced and off kilter. SO as soon as I admited this to myself and began to think of other options I had a "DUH' moment-also known as an 'aha moment for those less self deprecating than I. Put the biggest piece of furniture on the biggest wall. (Duh right?) As soon I let myself 'not like' the wall and furniture arrangement I decided it was ok to "not like" the wall color as well (mini confession: I actually came to this realization about 3 weeks after we painted it but didn't want to tell my sweet husband-he had worked so hard!! *insert sheepish face here* He took it well though)

So with all of these realizations in mind I got to work.

I took down the wall and patched the holes
and thought reeeeally long and hard about what color I wanted to paint -I knew it would be a shade of gray but was unsure of the depth of color i wanted. I even went so far as to buy samples!(here you can seee just long and awkward that wall was!)

in the end decided that deep dark gray was romantic, soothing and just plain perfect! (its 'weathervane' by valspar)

and of course Re-arranged the set up
The transformation is just beautiful-I am now totally satisfied and love this space!!
(dont worry! I have plans for that empty frame)


I have something I'm working on for this corner that I can't wait to show you:)
That's what I did this weekend!

Monday, May 23, 2011

Pinterest

I'm obsessed. And so inspired! I've finally come up with a plan for my bedroom and have tons of ideas for our kitchen remodel coming up. of course the down side of this is-I've been spending all my internet time on Pinterest instead of the blogosphere. (*case in point i've tried to write this post 3 times and every time I went to the site to pull pictures wound up browsing away an hour :/)

check out my Pintrest here and pin away!

Monday, May 9, 2011

we wear cute stuff

These are my new favorite shoes! they're from payless of all places

I'm loving this unexpected patten pairing-I felt especially cute all day;)
of course Gwen is looking fabulous

oh this girl-look at that face:)

Monday, May 2, 2011

'school' with Gwen







I've been trying to be more purposeful in my interaction with my sweet Gwenie. Of course we just plain play sometimes but knowing I plan on homeschooling her, I'm trying to implement a learning lifestyle early on. My mama (who homeschooled all 7 of us) gave me a book called 'slow and steady get me ready' that has weekly projects to do with your child from birth to 4 years that encourage things like confidence, dexterity and awareness of colors, numbers etc.

they're all very simple projects - like a handful of different sized nuts and bolts that we match and screw together - or we looked at pictures of turtles and then she stamped a pattern on a turtle I drew her. Her favorite though is the 'pouring' game. which is just what it sounds like'; a pitcher of water with different sized cups that she practices pouring into:) and while shes pouring we talk about it being 'heavy' and 'full' and then' light' and 'empty.' of course we took it to another level and added color to the water which promoted a little mini lesson on mixing colors-she was so excited when red and blue made purple!!!!! *que girly squeals of delight*

we definitely have happier days when we do 'school'. I think its the extra attentioned with the joy of discovery!