It's the little things...

The last few weeks have been trying for me (family stuff) and I haven't been in the mood for getting on here and talking about stuff.  I have since come to the conclusion that the issues I'm facing with my brother aren't going to change.  His choice, not mine.  

On that note, I decided to not dwell on it (I'm a champion dweller) and I'm going to instead be present in my present.  Does that make sense?

So on that note, I was out yesterday and went to the Walmart and as I was diligently going by the list in my head and not getting sidetracked and I found some really cute curtains for my kitchen along with the stuff I went in for.

When I got home, I snagged the last five of these little guys:

And hung these little guys:

They're the Better Homes and Gardens brand (they each came with two red panels and two of those are hanging on the back door, but they're just red and what's exciting about that??) and the packaging says "Fall in love with your home all over again!".  I thought that was a little much until I put these up and put away the dishes.  Guess what? They were right!  I loved my kitchen!  

We rent right now, but if this was my kitchen I would definitely paint the cabinets and walls and change the counters and floors. They aren't horrible, they just aren't what I'd do with my own space.

Believe me though when I tell you that I am thankful to have a kitchen to cook in and a roof over my and my family's heads.  No complaining from me....  :)

The entryway table

I'm linking up with Miss Mustard Seed for her Furniture Feature Friday Party!

~

I've always wanted a proper entry.  In Southern California there aren't a lot of houses that have such things.  So you can imagine my glee when we moved into this house in Washington and it has one!  

One problem.  What the heck goes in it??  

It sat empty for a long time...until this past August to be exact.

  

I finally got tired of looking at the random stuff I put in there trying to figure it out and went on a hunt while the boys were on a camping trip.  I mean, what better time to hunt than while alone? No dinner to make, no one to entertain, no one but me!!  :)  While making the rounds of all my favorite thrifting places, I hit Spencers Antiques last. I should have gone there  first.  

I found this table in the last booth I looked at.  Perfect!!

  Just a few random things I wanted in this space.  

After shopping the house, I came up with about 95% of what is in it now.  It was quite a relief since I didn't want to be out shopping anymore.  I wanted to be fiddling around!

One day I got sick of all the brown and remembered an 'oops' paint I had and decided to paint.  I sanded the top and realized under the ugly brown was some nice wood.  I didn't have any stain on hand, but I did have scratch cover.  So that's what I used along with a poly coat. It turned out pretty OK if you ask me.  

During a recent trip to Seattle I found this rug at Ikea. Side note: you have no idea how much I dislike being 4 hours from Ikea.  I used to be 10 minutes from one.  

The chair is also from Ikea and the pad is from Homegoods years ago.  The gum dispenser belonged to my grandparents.

(I'm fairly embarrassed to say that the gum in there is about 3 years old.  Yuck.  Thankfully, nobody wants any!)

The long basket here is also from Spencers and has 5 wire dividers inside, so I used it to put canning jars in each one to hold flowers in the beginning.  When they died, I used it just to fill space, but I love it! To keep some small things organized I found three wire baskets (I couldn't decide on a color, so we each got our own color) to throw hats and floppy purses and such in at the end of the day.

It looks really blue in this ↓ picture, but a truer shade is what you see in the shot above.  It's a flat paint and at first I wasn't sure about it, but in the end I liked it a lot. I distressed it here and there and love these little nail holes.

One of my favorite things about it are these little curvy bits.  Second to them is the top which is two wide slats of wood with a few marks here and there and a bit of a gap between them.  It has a great lived in feel that I love.

I finally feel like this area is finished thanks to this find.  Of course there's always something to rearrange or redo altogether. I love to keep the front door open now and I'm not embarrassed when someone comes a callin'!  :)

(I apologize that my pictures are more on the yellow side than I would like.  It was nighttime when I took most of them, but they do get the point across!)

Better pic

Instead of editing the last post, I 'll just post a new pic of the trees. I don't know why I didn't use this one before.

Merry X-MESS!

Welcome to my dining room. Isn't it lovely and inviting? Where would you like to sit...on the floor, maybe? UGH! I decided to trudge out to the garage and get the Christmas decorations out and get to decorating. No big deal except that I had another mess still going from trying to organize the downstairs room that's off the dining room.

HOT. MESS.

In trying to figure out what to do, I've come up with this beauty of a scene below. Not cute. It extends into the kitchen and blocks the pantry door, the laundry and the back door. Lots of grunting going on just to get outside or something to eat. And don't think I've done any laundry.

I'm too busy messing up the house. :)

Oops.

At any rate, trying to decorate a new house is always fun, yes? And I'm especially excited because of the built in hutch, awesome moulding, banister, porch and other cool details our house has. The problem is I've never had any of those things to deal with before. That means that the decorations I have have always been used in the same way on the same pieces of furniture and such.

Make sense?

Each time he walks through my husband mutters "More stuffs." Yes, 'stuffs'. It's an inside joke. Anyway. I don't want to buy anything new...before we moved we had yard sales and I went through and got rid of lots of stuffs, so I don't really want to add anymore.

That is unless I Just. Can't. Live. Without. It. ;)

Seriously, when is that ever NOT the case?

So far, this is my favorite thing. I bought the Farm Chicks Christmas book (I saw Serena signing books at our local Costco) and tried this craft. Super easy and a bit therapeutic since it's repetitive and easy.

At your local craft store get foam cones and use ribbon, twine, fabric, paper, whatever, and just wrap it around the cone until it's covered. Then secure with hot glue or straight pins. I still need to put a little poof on the blue tree, but for all intensive purposes (I know that's incorrect, but until I can remember where I heard the wrong phrase, I'm using it) they're done.

I know this scene still needs something, just not sure what. Hopefully there's something hiding in my tubs that'll be perfect. Please???

The only other space that I think is done is this corner. I saw a blogger who had purchased a super cool mantel at the Pottery Barn Outlet. Jealous!! I used to live near-ish an outlet in CA and NEVER went! Why? I don't know....

One day while Guerin was at hockey practice I headed to the nearest Pier One (a poor man's Pottery Barn? Maybe.) Love you Pier One!! :*

There is a PB that is close to me now, but not to where I was that day. Anyway....I can really get off track, can't I?? Wow. Sorry.

So while I was in there I saw the shelf you see below. On sale for $25 big ones. Can't go wrong. Hubby hung it last night and although it's sturdy and mantel-ish, I don't what else to put on it. (I actually wanted to paint a creamy color and distress it, but it's cool for now.) Greenery for sure...just need to get some. And I'm not in love (barely in like is more like it) with the candle holder. Jim likes it though. He doesn't have a ton of say in lots of rooms in the house, so the living room is a little more tailored for his taste. Nice of me, huh? ;)

In fact I don't even like it enough to take off the tag. Even though it's past the 30 day return time. Also the basket with the blankets has the tag still, too. I do like that...I just forgot about the tag.

I told myself I can't leave the house until this is finished, but I'm itching to get out of the house! Luckily I didn't tell anyone that little tidbit, so maybe I'll cheat and head out to Hobby Lobby.

To add to the pressure, Guerin and I are headed back to Cali next week to visit relatives and use our Disneyland passes for the last time. :( So there's packing and last minute shtuff (you can figure out that meaning!) to do....

Sigh. Lots to do. Gotta run.......

Summer is coming

And that always make me look around and want to change everything in our house! I want to go from warm colors to cool and bring out every seashell we've ever found, every bright colored anything we have, spruce up the bathrooms, make the living room like a magazine cover for almost any June issue you can think of and redo the kitchen entirely. Get rid of the red and green affects, clear off the counters and go light and beachy. I suppose these things are possible and can be done with minor pain, but usually once I do something like that, I want all the old stuff back immediately.

This is a great piece of plant life I found at the beach during spring break. I left it behind because they ask you not to take anything, but boy, I wanted it so badly!

Also, as much as I tell myself it won't cost anything, that is almost never true. Yes, I 'shop' at home first, but let's be realistic. We all want at least one new thing. Right? I take away one thing and all of a sudden there's an empty spot that needs something. That puts me in the car on my way to Homegoods, Target, thrifting, or anywhere I can find a little something to fill said space. Then, come next season, I have too much stuff and can't decide what to keep.

I'm sure this is normal and as much as I try to control my urges, it doesn't always work out. I'm sure in the next couple weeks, there will be major upheaval and deep cleaning going on and a bright, relaxing lightness to our house. And maybe a few new items that were added to the mix....

What do you do to change with the seasons at your house? Major things or just a few little tweaks?