Mosaic Monday 3/15/2010

Welcome to Mosaic Monday hosted by Mary at Little Red House. Visit all the participants and enjoy browsing all the Mosaics.

Here are the little letters I made and are on our family room wall under our mantel. For me it almost says it all. Home, nest, family, love.
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Family Room Refurbishing Part 4

Last post for the family room.

This corner here is where I've framed 2 pretty cards and fun-tacked 5 other cards that were sent to me for helping someone with their computer. (Just something I know a bit about and can help with sometimes.) She's a very famous painter and I'm not going to name drop.

You'll notice I am not a bit afraid of painting the mats "wild" colors. I love the vivid green and the caribbean blue I came up with after mixing several different colors with white for the 2 mats in this room. It adds a bit of a tropical feel to it with the little pink starfish on the ladder. I love color and am lavish in its use in my home.

The mantel contains some darling little birdhouse ornaments made by Rhea of sweetnshabbyroses and isn't doing very well physically right now. I added some white garland and bright pink and green balls to the mantel along with a little roses vase on the left and some more cupcakes on a rose plate on the far left. The little ballerina I made out of a matchbox and decorated with papers and garland. I had it for sell but it didn't sell so I get to keep it. I'll be making some more simply because I love having that kind of thing around my home. Beauty!

Here is the faux fireplace screen closer. (Click for a better view.) I added the paper roses, leaves and ribbons along with 2 small decals on the sides after painting the whole thing white.

On the right side I have a most unusual little tree I found at Goodwill but it is quite heavy and is done with wire. I have no clue what it was made for but I bought it home, painted it white and added little fabric covered eggs I bought last year after Easter when they were on sale. The roses in the little tin pot are my foray into coffee filter roses. Those are very labor intensive to do and hard to get them to look right. It wasn't worth the effort although I eventually did get a good looking one that you can see on the left of my sidebar.

On the left side of the mantel I have some more faux plants with little roses stuck in the middle. As I said, I don't care what other people think; I do what I like. I have to live in this house and that's what is important to me—what I and my hubby think of it. He thinks we need more model trains in it but that's beside the point. *Wink*

I made the one quilted ecru roses pillow on the left but the plaid one I got at JCPenney for a steal and the 2 blue toile I got at TJMaxx for $25.00 for the 2 of them and they're feather pillows. Squeeeeeeeal.

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Family Room Refurbishing Part 3

A few closeups of the items in the family room. This is the ladder with the finials tucked in nicely and the pink sparkly glittered starfish. I bought these little cupcakes from Shannon and just love them. I have several from different people as well as do my own, but I'd rather buy them than make them. It's much more fun to see other chick's delights! So go visit with her.

I also need faux plants as I love greenery around the house but everyone knows I can NOT grow a thing...well, maybe, mold, but plants? Nope, nada, zip. Then you'll spy a little darling bottle I got from Cathy. I don't have a passion for little decorated bottles; I have a passion for anything beautiful! Hence, the bottles. :-)
As I've said before: be adventuresome, or in come circles creative, in making pictures work for you if you're on a budget and the highly expensive picture framing industry drives you nuts like me. I use calendars, print pretty images off the internet (as long as I don't sell them, it's fine) and then hang them on my walls in old frames or use the mats to "frame" them.

This spot in the family room is not done. It's not visible from the dining area but that's no excuse for not finishing it off except I'm not sure what else I want to do with it. I have dozens of books I no longer use and am giving them to the thrift stores. Mostly decorating books. I'm keeping all my old favorites though and have put them back in the shelves but I'm thinking of pictures or knick knacks in there also. If you enlarge the photo and look on the 3rd shelf down from the top in the middle, you'll see my crayon box. Yes, I color in my books!

I have no other place for that pink chair I refinished years ago but I love it and am not selling it. I'll probably end up putting it somewhere in the living room eventually and stack books on it. It's an additional chair for holidays anyway. The baby shoes of mine on that little shelf will be changed out as soon as I figure out what will go on those tiny shelves. The bookcase houses most of Love Bunny's books and church books. The other one is for my froufrou and decorating books.

This little thermometer isn't my style but it is so cute I hate to get rid of it. Come to think of it, it really is a shabby chic style, isn't it? Anything goes with shabby and romantic!

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Random Thought:

Peppercorn steak is one of my favorite meals and I make it for us a lot. But I got to thinking—again—about it being in heaven. If it's not in heaven, then I'm taking all my "Take Out" menus with me and ordering in!

Family Room Refurbishing Part 2

Another view of the family room. It's not a very big room but it faces south and gets a lot of sun during the day. It looks out into the back yard. The lace curtains barely visible on the sides are what separate it from the dining room.

Clock on the left with a potpourri of things on the mantle. Pictures and mirror frame on the left.

A lamp to which I added flowers, lace, hanging crystals and a card from a friend .

Petal cake I made and put on a coffee table with a vintage roses tablecloth on it in our family room.

Little shabby houses sitting under a print of the english countryside with a cottage. A friend made these and I added the pink balls and white garland for the shabby effect. If I like it, it goes!

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Family Room Refurbishing Part 1

Several women have emailed and asked to see the refurbishing of the family room since we painted all the walls in the house pink and, since many of you are new to my blog, I thought I'd do it again. I've changed things around a bit. I've also added a tour of it to my sidebar which you can see also.

Most of you know I love decorating my home and doing different things occasionally....OCCASIONALLY?!?!....ok, a lot then. Sheesh, calm down, chicks. It's my lot in life, ya know. Gotta keep Love Bunny guessing where he sits each morning.

Anyway, here is the first round of the redo.

I had hubs make the faux fireplace screen and then I went to work decorating it with fabric. A plaid and a roses barkcloth fabric. I love how it turned out even though I wouldn't want to lift it very often as it's plywood. Clicking any photo will enlarge it for greater detail.

This is the sofa with the slipcover I purchased for $300.00 about 3 years ago and it still looks like new after several washings. I decorate my lamps with roses, lace and ribbon and anything else I want to throw on it. I'm adventuresome. Also, notice the pictures in the background that aren't in frames. I just painted some old mats and fun-tacked them to the wall around the little pictures when I decided that frames were out of sight in price.

I've covered these chairs that are about 25 years old and still in great shape, although, the upholstery is sort of a kilim looking fabric and not truly shabby chic. No, that's not true; I think they'd definitely fit in with the shabby chic romantic look, but I was tired of the fabric and there is no way Love Bunny would let me get them upholstered yet another time. I had the extra quilts as I stopped trying to compete on eBay with my items, and I think they are cozier for the house.

The little footstool is still the same but I've been thinking of doing it over again. Who knows? *Wink*

I found the little ladder at Goodwill....squeeeeeeal.....for $2.00 and painted it pink not knowing what in the world I'd do with it. This is it. I like the juxtaposition of the vintage finials and starfish that I painted pink and added "sparkle" glitter. More wall fluff either given to me or found at thrift shops was given a fresh coat of white paint and hung on the wall. I am a FIRM believer in hanging things low on the wall, such as the mirror, and even propping it up against the wall on the floor as seen in the photos of my living room and the architectural renderings of our home that I had framed and brought with me. I wasn't about to leave them there for the new owners!

I think that's all I'll show for today. I'll put more on later.
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Family Room Redo July 2009

The week we had the rest of the house painted was a blur to both of us. We sank into bed each night in total exhaustion from moving things from room to room for the painter. Although I'm not completely done with this room, there isn't much more to do. This is how it looks viewing it from our dining area. Soft lace curtains are tacked up over the entrance into this room for the soft romantic feminine feel I want. Love Bunny is going to make me a fireplace screen so I can paint it and put roses on it. I think I'll do decals until I get better with my roses painting. *Wink*

I left the border up for two reasons:
1. It is very expensive and
2. I can't find it anywhere anymore!
But he painted around it and I have 3 small patches to fix where I had to take down the curtain rods. But I do have a few feet left over to do this. I wish I could find it again but I've looked and looked. I bought the border many years ago because it is truly just scrumptious with roses. When I bought it I told my friends that I was buying it for my "forever house", which meant the last house we would live in until we were carted off kicking and screaming to the old folks home! I've kept that promise and never put it up anywhere until we bought this house. The pink chair I decoupaged came out of my bedroom into this room. As I've said many times, I "shop" in my home.......and daughter's home and storage shed. ;-)

I decided to go with "less" mostly because I love seeing so much pink. It's my favorite color, makes me happy, and I love being around it. I'm very, very visual. The beige color originally on the walls is my least favorite color for walls and I think I tried to cover it up with so much stuff. I love the new look, although, I'll be putting just a few more things up there..........maybe. I replaced the shabby chic roses curtains with plain white ones with vertical ruffles. They aren't very visible in the window because of the light but they are lovely curtains.

Of course, you can't see what's behind the chairs in the room or the end tables! I love the green ticking stripe slipcover and have had many, many requests asking where I got it. I bought it online at Touchstone but they aren't selling online anymore and I haven't seen it for a couple of years in their online store. I wonder where it could be found now. It truly is very shabby chic! But I also love blue so I found those 2 toile pillows stuffed with feathers......squeeeeeeeal..........at TJ Maxx for $25.00 a pair and snapped them up so fast I caused a whirlwind in the store that day. Then the plaid pillow I found at JCPenney and I made the other one out of a quilt I had. All in all this room has turned out well for me. Just needs a bit of "tweaking" and I'll be done!

A friend, Holly, painted that little picture for me over the sofa with the roses and birds looking down into a valley. I never framed it so I just hung it on the wall and put a bigger frame around it and it turned out just fine. I like the look and tried it again in the bedroom. Those pictures are for another blog post but I think you'll be delighted with that room if you like this room.

Here is a close up photo of that wallpaper border:
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Random Thought:

A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something. Be quiet and listen; you'll learn more and be considered very intelligent by all around you.

Foofing Up the Curtains......Again

If you knew how many curtains and bed coverings I had in this house you would NOT believe me. Just let me say there are many different ones. I've tried to cut down by joining "Foofy Curtain Anonymous" but even they have given up on me and thrown me out. Love Bunny was very sad at this, hoping that they could cure me. *Sigh*......... However, it makes me happy. If it makes me happy and doesn't hurt anyone then why in the world would I WANT to fix it? Hmmmm????

Okay, okay, with that being said, let me show you what the living room looked like a few days ago and what it looks like now.

I bought these dark red panels in January at Home Fabrics in Boise at a great price and hung them up. They seemed a bit dark and I thought I'd get used to them and truly do love the color, but I'm striving for more light in this north facing dark living room. I didn't get used to them!

Living room up until a few days ago.

Soooo while perusing through WM the other day I came upon these little pink and green jewels. One of my favorite color combinations. Now, how in the world could I have missed these panels as I'm a frequent WM shopper? So I bought these two pairs to see which one went better. I liked the plaid better. I love stripes and plaids and medium checks but plaids overrule the stripes and checks. Hence, I kept the 2 plaid panels, took back the 2 stipes and bought the very last 2 plaid panels. Whew, just in time!

Living room today. I do like the less formal lighter color and whimsey of a buffalo pink and green plaid. Much lighter for that room. I tied them with pink satin ribbon bows and put on pink paper roses to jazz them up a bit. Decorating is my most favorite thing to do........especially when Love Bunny says right in the middle of decorating that he wants to go camping the next day. *Sigh*....... He is still alive and kicking and I told him I needed one extra day. You DO NOT tell this chick the night before that you want us to go into the woods for a couple of days. I need at least 2 days notice to get used to the idea of communing with nature: bugs, skunks, bears, flies, other campers(?!), no showers and wood smoke!

Then there's the family room. It's striving for the shabby chic relaxed look with quilts thrown over chairs, a green stripe slipcover for the sofa and white lace sheers topped with ruffled white curtains. I also bought a white curtain rod and lowered it to show off our white woodwork. It's truly very pretty wood work and I don't want to put any holes in it so I lowered the new rod to either side of the window, which is south facing and gets a lot of light. I do love this look in here. It's very feminine, froufrou-y and light. There's only so much I can do to this north/south facing house for lightness, chicks. Maybe later we can get another solar tube in the living room but not at the moment. However, I do need to patch the wallpaper in here and the room will be painted pink next week. Squeeeeeeeeeal!! Can't wait to see this room in pink.

I composed this post and prescheduled it before the family room was painted pink so you'll understand what's going on since it is beige in these photos.
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Random Thought:

Try to follow your heart in everything that is good and beautiful. You'll never be sorry.

Family Room Entry Redo

Yep, when hubs leaves town I have to do something to keep busy, and I've had this idea in my head for a long time. Actually, our home in California had this in our living room entry into the dining room also. I've got sooooo many panels of lace that I won't need to shop for the next 20 years anyway, gals. I put these gorgeous lace panels with scalloped edges on my entry into the family room on the dining room side. I put them up with upholstery tacks, screwed cup hooks into the wall on each side, tied the curtains with grosgrain ribbon and hung them. The panels are 95" long so I had to tie them back to get them out of the way a bit. I like the effect. It's a very romantic feel to the area now. I'm never ever done with this home. Sheeeesh......... Don't fret; hubs is used to it now!