I Am Feeling Spooky. . .

Ok, we are all sad to see Fall get put away, especially since it is still in the 90s here but it is time to move on. My husband is starting to pull all our Halloween decorations out. My oldest daughter asked me if I could leave Fall up and add Halloween to it. I explained to her that only normal people did that! We have SO much Halloween, I need every space available!! We won't put our decorations outside yet, but it takes me at least one week to put up the inside. Plus, I need to know where I have gaps and what I can make to fill them!! Time to warm up the Cricut, crank down the air and get spooky!

My mantel from Halloween 2010.

I will keep you posted!

I Am Still Here . . . And Still Painting!

Ok, well I have been going in 20 different directions these days! Keeps me busy (unfortunately, not thin though!). But the problem is that I have many different projects but none of them are "done"! So here's another of my incomplete projects, in addition to putting up my spooky Halloween, my goal is to come up with a list of all the little things I need to do to bring the projects to completion and share with you!

Onto the guest room (very rarely slept in) that we are converting into the girls' and my office space. We are putting 3 desks in there, a small one for me to hold all our bills and our desktop computer, and two more, one for each girl. I have lived in my current house for the past 8 years. I have painted every square inch of wall at least one time, many twice and this room - a third time! It started off a Laura Ashley Moss or Green Apple (can't remember exactly which one, but it was also in my mom's and sister's house!), then it went to a goldish yellow with an antique glaze:

,

Sorry the photo is so dark, I am still learning my camera (that is 4 years old!),
basic view of the room before.

Another angle.

We took the closet doors off, many years ago,
and put a bookcase in there that served as a liquor closet!

Our dog's crate was also in there. She looks real excited about the new room!

We used this as our "Travel" room and displayed photos from our trips.
Unfortunately, I didn't quite get that done either before the big change!

So, I hit the local Home Depot, bought my paint, pulled out my brushes and got started. This room was easy to do because it only has 8 foot ceilings. Seriously, I have been painting some big 'ole rooms! Ironically, the green I went back to is close to the green this room was two coats again! Too bad I couldn't just peel off the old layer!

Love the color - ignore the touch-ups, they dried nicely later!

I decided to mix it up a bit and painted the closet (my future desk holder) two shades lighter.

My original plan was to Chevron stripe the inside of the closet - using the main room color for the stripes - from top to bottom. I think it was a great plan, the problem was, taping it off. I looked everywhere for a stencil, couldn't find one, so I had to grab the tape. Now, another thing you should know about me is, I am not a precise person, I eyeball things and just go with it. Then I spend a large portion of my adult life trying to straighten things up!!

So here's my first attempt -

I used chalk and an L-ruler to make sure everything hit at the same spot and was the same thickness!

Then I taped it all off. Because the closet has some crazy angles, I decided to do the Chevron stripes only across the flat back and then they turn into straight stripes (I'm lazy!)

I like it. It looks a little off but since I am going to hang a big calendar and some shelving
on the wall, I think it will look ok.

The desks are assembled (still need to post that blog), hang a few things on the wall, and cover the chairs for the girls and the room will be ready for the big reveal!

This weekend, I am off to the Nickelodeon Hotel with my Cadette troop for our last hurrah! Time to spend that cookie money. Then we are spending tomorrow at Universal Studios, having dinner at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville (salivating over those nachos already!) and coming home Saturday afternoon. My hubby gets a couple of days to himself, my only "Honey Do" for him, bring up my Halloween decs to I can start putting them up ASAP. Hosting Bunco at my house Oct 10 so need to have everything up by then! But that will be for another post!

What Was I Thinking . . .

Ok, in the spirit of the current economy of the US, I have decided to try to cut back a little while redoing my daughter's bedroom. I removed the popcorn off the ceiling myself (she has 12 foot ceilings on a slope). I decided not to prime the bare ceiling because I was out of primer and too lazy (and trying to save $$$) to run to the store to get more so I just painted the ceiling twice with the paint I already had. I will not talk about the two spots that were peeling (yes, at the 12 foot mark) and how I went back over them with a brush and a prayer that they won't peel anymore!!

We did splurge on new carpet and some new furniture. How is that saving you ask? Well, carpet not so much but it was desperately needed (she currently has hot pink carpet which I am sad to see go but it is FILTHY!). The savings came with the furniture. Each of the last two days, I have assembled furniture. No, we didn't need that fancy furniture from a fancy store where it comes assembled and big burly men bring it in your house and put it wherever you want. We got the Target special. Now, you don't know a lot about me yet but I LURVE Target!! It is a great company, with great products and I was an employee there for 3 years, excuse me, I mean Team Member! However, back to subject, each day I came home from picking my youngest daughter up from camp, there has been a BIG, and I mean BIG package at my door.

Don't forget to multiply this by 2!

Now I live in a three story house (No, I am not skinny. Yes, I thought the house would help me lose the baby weight, too!) but I decided it would be easier to assemble the furniture downstairs and carry it put together upstairs. Not sure about that decision yet as I have been in "put together" mode! My fingers hurt, my back hurts, and my right foot (where I dropped the bookcase not once, but twice on it) really smarts!!

So here's the fun I have been enjoying:

That's alotta pieces - again, times 2!!

I'm gonna need a bigger glue bottle!

I see lots of pieces!

It's getting there. Hope I didn't do it upside down!

Taaaadaaaaaa!

Love the detailing.

And double taaaaadaaaa!

These will look great in Liv's room. Can't wait to fill them up and should hold lots of goodies. We found some great, decorated bins to go on the shelves and hold toys and keep us organized!!

Now on to the TV stand!!