You Want Zebra Fur Where?

Ok, so I think I mentioned that my youngest daughter was getting her room redone for her 10th birthday. She decided she wanted lime green, black and zebra fur! Yes, she wanted it on the wall but I talked her out of that! Love her vision and out-of-the-box thinking (may get her farther on Design Star than I would get), didn't want to have to deal with fur on the walls - oh vay! So paint was going to be our friend. For a refresher, here's the before:

So we went with a lime green below the chair rail, high gloss black on the all the trim and white above.

I splurged on the Behr with Primer but it still took 2 coats, plus you were suppose to wait 24 hours in between coats, so sorry Home Depot but not gonna happen!! This impatient mom did not have that much time on her hands (please look away from the pink carpet on the ground. It's being changed next week!!)



The colors work nicely together. My husband was sad because of the pink leaving our house. Both girls rooms were pink at one time and now those little girls walls are covered up with other colors (but NO fur!).

The other thing we were trying to do to save some money is reuse furniture around the house or in the garage. Right now, we have about 12 pieces of furniture not in use. I plan to sell some of it one of these days (in my spare time!)! My daughter's room is small, with an even smaller closet, so we decided to give her as much storage in the room. I am a firm believer in "a place for everything and everything in it's place!" Wish my kids (and hubby) followed that! So we added a large dresser, that used to hold our TV in the family room (so much for saving money because now we will need a new TV stand - yeah, shopping!). So we took the old stand/dresser, painted it with the high gloss black and it looks great!



We also found a mirror in the garage that we had never used but came with the dresser. I pulled it out, cleaned it up and will paint it the lime green color. This will help her room to look bigger.

So that's where we stand right now. We are going to go shopping for some accessories and storage boxes that will complement the colors. I also have to assemble the 2, yes not 1 but 2, bookcases we ordered from Target on-line (again, the not spending money thing is just a concept to us!!).

It's starting to come together and our goal is to have it done before school starts on August 22!! Keep you posted!

Popcorn is Better with Butter . . .

Not on the ceiling! I HATE popcorn ceilings! My hubby says hate is a strong word but that is how I really feel about those hideous ceilings. Lazy contractors put them up, they don't look good and will eventually collect dust and dirt (no, I am not a clean freak but I prefer to keep my dirt on the ground where I could easily clean it if the urge ever struck me! It doesn't strike often!) Ok, so with new carpet on it's way, I decided to start tackling my daughter's bedroom ceiling. My hubby grabbed the big ladders (her ceiling is sloped and starts at 8 feet and goes up to 12 feet!!) and I grabbed the spray bottle and scraper. That's all you need (plus, determination and old clothes!)

So I started spraying and scrapping, scrapping and spraying, spraying and scrapping. That's it - just like lather, rinse and repeat. It's not hard, it just takes grit (going with old school terminology!). Here's a tip, cover the ceiling fan so popcorn doesn't fall in the motor. I learned that lesson the expensive way in another room!

Some normal people might also use goggles but I don't like wearing them because they fog up and I can't see well with them, so I have gotten good at staying out of the way of falling down popcorn. Look down when you are just overhead!

All in all, it went well and smoothly - ha, ha - that was the goal wasn't it?

A couple coats of fresh paint (I was out of primer and too lazy to leave the house to buy it, don't recommend that as the paint pulled up in a couple of places and I had to work my magic to sand it back down and repaint!).

But now it's as good as smooth! Makes all the difference in the world! It really only took me one day's work. I have done all the ceilings in the house except for the living room but that has 16 (or higher, I have never measured) foot ceilings so mama's not gonna do it! I will leave that to the professionals!

So if you are going to try it, have fun and plan on getting dirty! There will be popcorn in body places you didn't know existed but the finished look will be clean and smooth and give you a feeling of a job well done!

Now it's time to pick paint colors, but that's for another post!

The Things We Do For Our Kids . . .

My youngest daughter, Olivia, is turning 10 in a month. She has been wanting to redo her room for about a year but since our house was on the market, we said wait until we move because, seriously, what was the point!

Needless to say, as I had previously mentioned, our house hadn't sold and there weren't any houses we just "had to have" so we decided to stay put for the time being. Minutes after that decision was made, two things happened. One, our house became trashed (having to keep your house clean for showings at any time is exhausting, especially with two kids, one husband, and a black Lab!)! And two, a little, blonde girl climbed on my lap and asked if I could redo her room. What's a mom to do? So here's pics of Olivia in her current room.




Her room is cute but just feels cluttered (maybe because it is!). There is also something you need to know. My oldest daughter, Caitlin, has a large room. In fact, it's actually two rooms in one.

Caitlin's room was featured in a makeover article in the St Petersburg Times in August 2009. Caitlin is on the bed, little sis Liv, on the chair.

So when we decided to redo Liv's room, the goal was organization. She is a clutterbug and hangs onto all kinds of items that invoke wonderful memories (I call it crap!). So we sat down with our new best friend, Pinterest, and started posting items she liked to her folder.


This is the bed she loves. It is from Rooms to Go Kids and cost $800. It has storage above and a trundle below (the trundle costs extra but we already have one we can use). The funny part is that the bed is called The Olivia!! I think it was meant to be. There are two problems, one the design Olivia wants is to center the bed on the wall and put a bookcase on each side. That is a great idea but it will block 1/3 of the window, which we are both kind of ok with. Two, the bed costs $800 and we currently have two perfectly fine beds (one in the garage and one in her room) that would work just as well. This decision is still currently pending!!!

Others have already been made. Olivia has expensive taste and in the spirit of finding storage, found these:




I love them too! They are from Pottery Barn Teen but at $599 and $699 (respectively), I couldn't bring myself to get them plus, we needed two and S&H had a $75 surcharge per bookcase - EGADS!!






























So I was able to convince her to go with these:


They aren't as fun since they don't rotate but will look nice and are from Target. We had to order them on-line. They were $280 each, had an additional 15%-off sale and free S&H so a mommy is not going to complain (until they arrive and that will be another post, just as a teaser, they look great IN THE END!)



As for the colors, Olivia knew she wanted zebra so she wanted zebra "fur" under her chair rail and lime green above. Now, a lot of times, I let my kids just go with it. However, I had visions of me trying to vacuum the walls, and since I barely vacuum the carpets, that was not gonna happen! The color palette we decided on was lime green below the chair rail, high gloss black on all the trim, white above the rail and zebra as accent. It will actually look great and quite sophisticated for such a young lady but it is what we were able to compromise on.



So that's the room makeover in a nutshell. The process has begun, starting with stripping the popcorn off the ceiling! But that's for another post!

And 'Lo and Behold, a Miracle Has Happened . . .

Ok, so a miracle occurred this weekend. Now mind you, it wasn't a walking on water or turning water into wine (except that would be AAWWEESSOOMMEE!) miracle, but a miracle nonetheless! It all started early Saturday morning.

We had to wake up early (6:00 a.m. on a non-school morning is way TOOOO early) to pick daughter #1 up at camp. She had spent the week at Warren Willis United Methodist camp. The kids were singing songs they had learned and they had a little service before everyone went home that morning. After the service, we loaded up the car and headed back home. Along the way, daughter #1 had to stop to use the restroom. We were on a stretch of interstate where there are not a lot of exits and the rest stops were closed while being rebuilt (not nice!). So at the next exit, we saw the normal McDonalds, Burger King, signs and got off. They were about 3 miles down the road (groan!) but when nature calls. We started seeing signs of civilization and then my heart started racing!! I knew where we were - we were in my Mother Land! The Shops @ Wiregrass!! I had heard about it. I had read about it. But I had never made the 1.5 hour trip there to shop.



NOTE: I am a rookie blogger and yes, this shakes me to my core, but I will have to ask my mother how to get my photos bigger so please me patient with me!!

So, after breathing into a brown paper bag for a few minutes, we found this big, beautiful Barnes and Noble. All personal business was taken care of, Sunshine State Reading books and a travel book were purchased, and then we decided to walk around and then eat. Now, mind you, this is an outside mall and it is 90+ humidity. Something to know about me, I HATE the heat and have lived in Florida pretty much my entire life. I was hot but was determined to shop so we forged on. My girls are old enough to go into a shop or two on their own so we split while they went into their favorite clothing stores and my husband and I hit Pottery Barn to look. I HONESTLY did no go in with an agenda (and I am appalled you could have thought that!!). We have recently decided to not sell our house, make the most of what we have, and make the house work for us. Therefore, I have started a list (currently 12 pages long!!) of "things" that we need to do. Some huge, replace the dock and boat lift, and some minor, have the carpets clean. So I am "redoing" (air quotes) each room in the house one at a time. I am addicted to Pinterest and reading other blogs, so I have 1,000s of ideas and am excited to implement them, but I digress. Back to PB, that store can take my breath away. I love the displays. Now, please bear in mind. I have a fantastic husband. He is a fantastic husband and father, everyone loves him, and he likes to entertain however, he will protest my plans (until he screams uncle), will always roll his eyes, but always helps me clean up!! He is very patient with me and does in the end, appreciate a nice home. It just usually takes a lot of mulling and contemplation on his behalf before we can pull the trigger. Luckily, he usually climbs on board. As we are walking around, I am looking for comfy chairs to go with the PB couch we have (currently using Smith & Hawken outdoor chairs from Target for $25 each/regularly over $200, but the cushions are shot and are not nice to the butt!), he spies a coffee table.

So here's the miracle in actual time:

Hubby: I really like this.
Me: Me too. I would love to decorate it.
Hubby: Would it go in our family room?
Me: Sure, between the couch and the new TV stand we are getting, there is a lot of brown but you could add colorful pillows, throws and lots of fun stuff to all the cubbies.
Hubby: How much is it?
Me: (I look at the price tag) $500.
Hubby: Let's get it.
Me: (Takes a few minutes to respond since I am on the floor) Seriously?
Hubby: Yeah. I really like it. (And goes off to find the salesman).



(Even though I live on the water in Florida, I only like shells on the beach or in moderation in a jar in my bathroom!)

We ended up getting the floor model (at a 10% discount) and we walked out the door with it (not literally though!). We also bought some new fry pans at Williams-Sonoma. We REALLY needed some new fry pans. We had received All-Clad for our wedding (over 15 years ago) and desperately needed new ones (I think we should be able to hold showers every 10 years to replace items!!). I went looking for more All-Clad but got talked into buying Calahalon Non-Stick. It was a great deal and they have worked great so far;

OOHHH! Itty-bitty photo but so was the price. An 8" and 10" pan for $59.95 - sweet!

So here's my pretty new table in my home.



NOTE: Don't look too hard in the background. We have moved some furniture around and have several temporary pieces in place until we get our new ones.

So, that is the end of this posting. I LOVE my new coffee table. I LOVE my husband's spontaneity! And I am off to figure out how to decorate it. I see many, many more posts featuring this table in the future!!