Weekend Projects Part 2

I'm back with the next change I made over the weekend. The first part of this mini project was free, it just required some superhuman effort and some hubby help. All we did was some minor furniture rearrangement. Previously, the TV cabinet was in the corner. I never liked it there because it blocked the window and I like as much natural light into a room as possible. Unfortunately, the thing weighs a ton. And it has a heavy TV in it. And a DVD player and stereo equipment. And stacks of movies and CDs in the bottom. Well, taking all that out and unhooking all the wires is a great big pain. So we huffed and puffed and shoved that big boy over along the wall. The couches were much easier, just a little tweaking there.

Here's how everything was before:



And the new arrangement that's more straight on:





But there's something else different there. What else has changed between the before and after picture? One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong.....Anyone else remember that from Sesame Street? There are actually five things different that I see, can anyone find all the differences between the first and second photo?

I'll give you a hint on the first and biggest which is my new area rug! I found it at Old Time Pottery for $32. I wasn't planning on buying a rug for there yet, but I happened to find this one on sale and it was the only green one left.



It's amazing how simply a new furniture arrangemet can change a room and it's a great free way to have a mini room makeover. So give it a try. Pull your furniture out from the walls, switch your couches and chairs around, and give a new look a try. So that's part 2 of my weekend updates. Go here for part 3 with some changes to my dining room table.

Weekend Projects Part 1

Right after I posted this on Wednesday, I read about the DIY party on A Soft Place to Land. So I'm ready to join in with this post and a couple others of various weekend projects I had going on.

I had several projects over the long weekend to spruce up and decorate the house. The biggest project was painting our headboard. Our headboard is a hand me down we've had since we got married. Here's the blah wood before shot:



Then after applying a coat of good old Kilz oil based primer and two coats of Behr touch of cream laytex paint I moved the new headboard back inside to show off it's transformation. I also added our new Shabby Chic bedding from Target, a bit of a splurge (anything over $20 is usually a splurge to me though), but our old bedspread was falling apart and had so many rips in it from kitty claws. So with all that here's the cottage look after:





Even the dresser got a little facelift. I added some new handles from Target ($9.99 for a pack of six.) I'm still contemplating painting it as well. Maybe a soft tan color to pick up the color from the comforter. What do you think?



So that's part one of the projects I had going on around the house. Go here for part two of my weekend project about furniture arranging and check out my side bar for links to more projects. Thanks for visiting and be sure to check out the DIY party from ASPTL.

Places of Rest

I spent much of the weekend working on arranging and decorating around the house. I painted my headboard, changed our dresser hardware, and rearranged the living room. I'm still getting everything situated so photos of my own rooms will have to wait. Since my master bedroom has been my main project lately here are some gorgeous bedroom retreats I have come across. All images are from Country Living and House Beautiful.

I just love how they draped the curtains around the bed and the window:

Not sure what's up the green shag rug, but I love the rest of the room from Country Living:

While this room isn't exactly a master bedroom unless you are in a 1950s TV sitcom, I really like the color scheme they used. It feels like a tropical getaway in your own house. And how cool is that ceiling?

Happy Birthday USA!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. I just love Independence Day. The food is so good and I just adore watching fireworks, even though my husband and his brothers can get a little crazy with the fireworks sometimes. All the ladies get to have fun with sparklers.

It's amazing the courage and determination the signers of the Declaration of Independence had. They knew signing the Declaration could be a death sentence, but they believed in a great cause and were willing to take the risk to create this great country.

We had our celebration Friday night. This worked out well since it's been raining most of the day today. Here's a few shots I captured of our fireworks display:







God Bless the USA!

And the winner is...

The winner of the CSN rug giveaway is Princessflufferbutt! I used a random number generator to select the winner and I have to smile everytime I saw that blog name out loud. She chose the sage green rug. Congrats! Thanks to everyone who entered.

It's Great to be a Blogger

I'm so happy! Centsational Girl made my day by graciously nominating me for my very first blog award. I just began this blog a little over a month ago and I'm still trying to figure everything out so it was a surprise and an honor to receive this lemonade award:

So now it's time to pass on the blog love to 10 other talented bloggers who display great "attitude and gratitude." There are sooo many wonderful blogs out there it's hard to pick just 10 but here they are:

1. Next in Dianaland for her awesome bathroom makeover

2. Kelly's Korner for her wonderful "Show us where you live Fridays"

3. The Neatery for this amazing table transformation

4. Thrifty Decor Chick for her painting square and stripes post

5. Sanctuary Arts at Home for her wonderful bench makeover

6. Our Suburban Cottage for her lovely "how to make a chandelabra"

7. Nannygoat for the awesome playhouse she created. I don't have kids, but this is too cute!

8. From House to Home for her gorgeous yard sale cabinet redo

9. Homebody for her beautiful chair makeover

10. The Newlywed Diaries for her delightful party ideas and decorations

And those are the 10 blogs I was inspired by this week. It's so difficult to just pick 10 because of all the awesome ideas and amazingly creative bloggers out in cyberspace.

Laundry a Chore No More!

Ok, does anyone really like doing laundry? I know I don't. All the cramming of clothes into the washer and then pulling out wet clothes to stuff into the dryer and somehow make they all fit. Not to mention all the yucky dryer lint to clean out that sticks to everything in my laundry room and seems to multiply on every surface. I realize it's a fairly simple activity that doesn't require too much effort, but it's one of my least favorite chores.

Of course, my laundry room is also the home of the cats' litter box, so I have to work around that and avoid dropping any clothes in it. (Eww!) It's also the only room in the house we never painted so it's drab and dirty and full of miscellaneous clutter and cleaning supplies. Someday I hope to get a stackable set of front loaders so I have room for a mini mudroom area as well as hide that stinky cat box in the corner. But for now our 15 year old washer and 20 year dryer hand me downs continue to chug away. Of course it takes about 2 hours to dry a load of laundry so I'm not sure how economical it is, but until they finally give up and die or I win the lottery(not likely since I've never bought a ticket) I'm stuck with my little laundry room devoid of cheer.

I came across a few rooms that might make laundry less of a chore because of how bright and pretty they are. I love all the organization in these areas as well. Anyone else feel like washing some clothes now?

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