DIY Advent Calendar

Christmas is upon us! This year things are a little tight but I managed to get our Advent Calendar up and ready before the first.

I went with a simple, colorful design this year.

Each Advent is a scrap of 3" scrapbooking paper that I had, with a blank back for writing our sentimental sentiments on them. I decided against our usual advent to make things a little easier on us. Just a simple note each day. These are they types of advents I cherish the most.

Aren't the little clothespins the best?

The name of the game this Christmas is easy and fun and I think this meets those requirements. I'm still coming down from a delicious Thanksgiving with family but I'm looking forward to getting more Christmas up and out this week.

Cheers!

Have A Seat

Since we moved the dinning room in to the living room area, the old dinning room has been in flux. I'm still struggling with a few aspects but here is the in-between state.

The chairs are from Fred Meyer a while back and the table is from Cost Plus. The rug is way too small. I bought one from Urban Outfitters but it was too big so I'm back to square one.

The sunshine has been making picture taking difficult but here is the view looking in from the front of the house back towards the kitchen.

We still need to move the chandelier. We have been ducking around it but now that we are sure we are happy with the new set up I can move it back over the dining room table.

My ikea desk has replaced the buffet that was here. It is a bit too small but it is a good place holder until something better comes along.

A few little changes but I am starting to see what I want this room to look like. I just wish I had a warehouse full of every type and size of furniture known to man so that I could try a bunch of options. Like a staging company but for regular people.

Cheers!

Summer Chalkboard

With temps in the high 80's I figured it was time to change out the chalkboard on the front porch. I used this as my template.

I searched quite a bit for a quote or something but this one kept coming back.

Simple, just like summer should be.  Now if only it would get like 10 degrees cooler I might actually be able to enjoy it!

Cheers!

Tumbling Down

So a few months ago my mother was visiting and we were sitting around chatting when we heard a CRASH coming from the kitchen. 

The aftermath. 

My beautiful floating shelves apparently got fed up with carrying all of my cook books and did a nose dive. Boo!

We still aren't sure what to do with the space in the long term. Do we dare to do shelves again? For now, I shopped the house and pulled this little corner together.

It definitely holds all of the cook books (and a few other important items). I'm not loving the color it is in here so if it stays it will probably get a coat or two of paint.

I propped up our monthly calender (which I just realized needs to be changed to May) added my pompom flowers, piggy bank, and that cute bug tray for a key catch all.

Don't you love it? Cost plus is selling them right now for $1.99. I got all three styles but this one is my favorite.

What do you think? Is this a keeper? Or did you like the floating shelf better? Daniel want's the shelves back but I am skeptical we can make it work better this time. 

Cheers! 

To Paint or Not to Paint?

While my Physical Therapist is making me swear off heavy lifting (as well as standing too long, sitting too long, and just about everything else) we are still managing to make some progress on our bathroom renovation. This weekend we are planning on working on plumbing so one significant step had to be made- the sink.

Namely pipe placement. Of course that brought up a whole new issue so, I come to you for advice. I took my $30 vessel sink, my $9 sewing table and my $60 faucet and put them all together.

Do I paint it the original Emerald I was thinking (from this inspiration), do I leave it as-is color wise, or do I stain it darker? Or something else?

So, what do you think? I'd love to get your input!

Cheers!

Linking up to:

Spring Time!

And it's about time! It seems like winter is finally shedding its coat here and spring just might be right around the corner. My daffodils are up and blooming so I figured it was about time to do something about my chalkboard art.

Not quite so merry in March...

I did a quick Pinterest search of "spring chalk boards" and found this lovely one from Ella Claire

She has a great link to an explanation on how to do a chalkboard the right way but I just free handed it. I don't mind that it isn't perfect.

I topped it off with some moss from the back yard to give it even more spring time appeal.

A quick little update while I recuperate from my back injury. No demoing for me any time soon. Luckily it is all done for the bathroom and we are on to the electrical and plumbing phases of the project. Fingers crossed we will be done with at least one of those this weekend!

Cheers!

Just Hanging Around

The downstairs project has displaced a great many things. That and my collection of free or almost free projects I just haven't gotten around to is starting to pile up hoarders style. I've basically decided to Craigslist it all so hopefully it will be clutter free soon.



via

One thing I didn't want to part with though was my wall of frames. So, I relocated it.

What once was an empty hall

now is filled with memories!

I wanted to play with the arrangement a little and when I found this pin a while back I thought I'd give it a try.

I like the way the center line anchors the different sized frames. It was hard to get strait and even (think lots and lots of holes) but in the end it worked out. Now the hall has a little pizzaz don't you think? Especially compared to its pre-picture plainness.

I didn't quite use all of the pictures but I'm sure I'll find homes for the rest!

Cheers!

Linked to:
 

Living Room Curtains

It all started with this picture:

Via who knows- the pin just links back to an error message for inappropriate content :(

I wish I knew where it came from. Is that not the most gorgeous living room?
Update: According to Emily A Clark (who happened to post the exact same picture today) the room above is from Style at Home
I had been trying to sell Daniel on putting curtains in the front room for a while (for texture not really for function) and this picture sold him. All I needed were the perfect curtains that didn't require selling any limbs. Of course it is never that easy.

I searched high and low, scoured fabric stores and the good old web until I stumbled on this pair from West Elm. 

ironwork flocked

scribble

Honestly they were a total tie but in the end we went with the Scribble panels. Not only were they basically half the price of the flocked ones they seem a little less formal and I hope they will fit in to the space better (plus I hemmed and hawed for so long they gave me 15% off). Only downside? They are back-ordered until July. Boo. 

I still need to share pictures of what we've been up to in the living room but that will have to wait until construction is done.

So what do you think? Am I crazy to wait four months for curtains? I figure it locks me in and I have time to change my mind if I want to.

Cheers!

VITTSJÖ Hack

Daniel and I have what I think of as an unorthodox way of decorating. We tend to sit on ideas for a long time only to radically change plans and then go on a shopping spree. It sounds crazy but it actually works for us.

This is the story of my ever evolving living room.

It started out like a normal weekend. We made a list of things we wanted to work on and settled in to our plans only to find ourselves taking an impromptu Ikea trip and spending the day making this.

This hack was quite literally that.  We started out with this shelving unit (x3) and took some measurements.

See too tall. So we got out the trusty hacksaw and got to work (though the hacksaw was later abandoned for the multi-max for the sake of our arms).

Many many hours later we had successfully modified and built our shelves. We decided to cut down from the top (leaving that little half shelf) because it required the least changes to the overall structure of the unit.

Then I got to move all my books up from the office and style (probably my favorite part). The giraffe helped.

I love this little vignette. My thrift store Asian art and wooden bird cage (i'll show you how I put that together later), the cute little pig from my childhood and my favorite pictures of my parents.

Here's the view from a bit further back. I don't know how I want the seating arranged so that will probably change.

The living room has been my biggest design dilemma because it is so long and narrow with the front door dumping in to one side and the dining room cut out of the other. It is rarely used and so has until now been sparsely furnished. Now I actually like sitting in there! There is still much more to be done but we are making little tweaks at a time. I've already tackled the nook by the fireplace and have some ideas for seating so there is more to come!

Cheers!

Bedroom Progress

We started this weekend with all sorts of plans to finish up a few projects we have been working on around here but in grand Keller fashion we decided to go to Ikea instead and start a new project that wasn't even on our radar. I know, crazy. Of course, since we decided this Saturday night I'm still putting the finishing touches on things so I thought I'd show you something we did ages ago.

Remember when we were rushing to get things done for our house inspection way back? Well part of that was giving it a paint job. That's right, I've been sitting on a Before and After for months. Bear with me folks.

Here's the bedroom right after we cleaned everything out back in July.

You can see our finished corner that we bumped out in the kitchen processes giving us a nice square room instead of a silly L-shaped one.

 My mustard dresser really clashed with those lavender walls.

Obviously we needed to paint to make it look less half done so we tried something new. Since time was of the essence we decided we would just go to the store, pick paint, and then come home and paint. No swatches, no thinking, just go with our gut instinct.

Here's how it turned out.

We ended up going with Behr's Slate Green. Which is surprisingly not very green.

I also finally splurged and got a full length mirror. Can you believe I've gone a year and half without one? I've been so happy to be able to see my see my shoes and shirt at the same time (silly I know, but it is the little things)

I'm not sure if the light is staying. It actually doesn't clash as much as I thought it would but I am still on the fence (Daniel loves it so it may take an act of God to change it).

Daniel's side of the bed.

My side of the bed. As you can see I get the dog. I've got ideas for how to hide the dog bed though. I'll keep you updated if I ever get around to it.

 You can see we have the trim up but I need to put one more coat of paint on it. I also need to paint those doors.

There you have it, a long over due reveal. Has anyone else just picked random colors and gone with it? So far it is working out for us.

Dining Room Bling

I love my little chandelier but I have always dreamed of something more. Something like this in fact.

via

Every time I'm out and about I always swing by my local ReStore hoping to get lucky. I've seen a few but they are always sold by the time I get to them. Not this time. I jumped on that baby and now she is mine.

What do you think?

It was really heavy so we thought we'd let it hang for a while with some pillows underneath just in case it fell. 

Norman thought we were making the floor particularly comfortable just for him. In the end we abandoned the pillows and trusted that we used the right hardware. So far thing thing is staying up.

Here are some close up shots.

I love the pineapples.  Apparently they are a symbol of hospitality so you should all feel very welcome looking at my dining room. 

It adds such a nice presence to the room. I also got the chance to finally get a picture of our dining room rug.

$40 at Goodwill. Don't you just love that place? It is in really good shape and the colors are just right for the house. 

My mind is whirling on all of the seating options that might work better though so this room still needs some loving before it is complete.

Anyone else stumble upon something wonderful? I just learned we have HomeGoods in our state so Daniel might have cause to be afraid.

Cheers!