My Bedroom

I cleaned my bedroom!  I wanted to give you a quick tour before it got messy again.  Our bedroom gets a lot of action and it gets pretty messy pretty quickly.

In the summer time the kids haul their bean bags up and we all watch a movie together.  Sunday mornings the kids wake us up and hang out until hubby and I get up and get moving. {Sometimes the boys make muffins for breakfast and haul everything upstairs so we can have a little picnic in/on our bed.  I have a coffee stain on the flat sheet, but that's okay with me.  It reminds me of that special morning.}

In the winter we have been known to pile up in the bed and watch a movie on Friday night when we are all ready for some together/quiet time.  It amazes me that our teenagers still are willing to hang out with us on a Friday night.  I love our bedroom just because I have so many special family memories of laughing and being together.   

Silly Tip ~ I took the standard sized pillow shams from the bed set, folded them in half length-wise and hung them on the bar the sheers are hanging from.  They made perfect window valances on either side of the bed. Cheap and easy.

One thing I love about living in a super old house is the interesting nooks and crannies.  Our bedroom is shaped like a big cross.  This is my ironing nook.  {I hate ironing and I avoid it all costs!}  But when I can no longer put it off, I love looking out at the trees and listening to the birds. 

Our entertainment and reference center.  I love how neat and orderly everything is here. 

Opposite of the ironing nook is our desk.  It is missing the little ottoman we use as a seat because it is getting a makeover.  More on that later.  We just finished putting this little corner together and I still need a few more pictures of the kids on the wall and shelf.  I am looking for garage sale frames that I can paint black and add black and white photos to.

I would love to say that I get a ton of blog work done here as I had originally planned to do.  But I have to admit, I do most of my work on the couch in the family room in the middle of the ciaos of a busy family.  I guess I am just hardwired to work that way.  But I still love my pretty space that is waiting for me whenever I need to get away from the kids. 

Our little bench used to be yellow.  I found it at a hotel furniture outlet and it was super cheap because it was a horrible yellow plaid.  For now, the bench/coffee table is in the middle of a makeover.  We spend a lot of time on this day bed.  I watch the news here in the morning and sometimes Joel and I get some time to watch a television show together here.  Love this comfy spot.

I made the 'LOVE Matters' before I started blogging.  I dis-assembled a framed poster.  I left the poster in place and painted over the picture with some of the paint I used to paint the walls.  Then I took scrapbook paper and cut out the LOVE.  Matters is free handed with a paint brush and some black acrylic paint.  The whole project was the cost of the scrapbook paper and one tube of black acrylic paint.  {$5.00 total cost!}

I am joining Lipstick and Laundry for Sky Blue Sunday.

The Sun Porch

In our house summer is about a lazier pace, soaking up the sunshine, gardening, jumping off the dock into the lake, iced tea and picnics at the park.  We read a ton of books in the hammock, eat as many meals as we can on the patio, watch the sun rise, play a ton of games and enjoy the scent of freshly cut grass.  The kids climb trees, collect bugs, make homemade popsicles, and rid their bikes all over the place.  Rainy days during summer vacation are perfect for watching a movie, going to the library, dancing in mud puddles and just watching God's beautiful display of nature. 

It's raining outside today, but I am going to show you our sun room.  I love our sun room.  In the summer we bring in a day bed with lots of pillows.  It is perfect place for reading or giggling.  Summer is about being outside as much as possible, but if we have to be inside, we go to the sun room.   

I love this chair.  It used to be in my husbands bedroom when he was growing up.

We picked up a coffee table from a used hotel-furniture outlet that is virtually indestructible.  The kids are big chess and checkers fans.  You can see the checker board tutorial that we made to go with the rooms decor.

The two end tables were picked up at a garage sale for $5.00 each!  I gave them a make over and I love how they turned out.  I added our family photo and a pair of baby shoes to one of the tables.     

A little house plant sporting a little blue mushroom and a lantern were added to the other table.

Closet WITH Storage Space

I had a few goals for myself this year.  They were little goals that would make my life a little better. One of the goals was to come up with a way to store my ribbon. Check.

The next two goals were about closets.  This week my dear husband offered to help me make over our closet.  Thank you Joel!  We worked pretty well together.  He did the work and I took pictures.  :-)

First we are going to need some tools of the trade. A tiny little drill bit, a 1/4 inch drill bit and a Phillips head screw driver tip are needed for the drill.

You will want to have a level.  I prefer a small level, but hubby prefers the larger one so we have two out.  A pencil to make the wall and a ruler will be needed.  If you are working on your own, you may want a hammer and a Phillips head screw driver...I'll explain about that later. 

Finally you will need screws and anchors.  We have plaster walls, but you would also want to use anchors if your walls are finished with drywall.  We are using two inch screws. 

You will also want to have a cordless drill on hand.  I LOVE it when hubby uses this thing around the house. ;-)

We have all our supplies set up on this little table so we can keep track of everything.  Also you will notice the boards.  We have pre-cut and painted the wood that will be acting as the brackets for our shelves.  For each shelf we will need two 23 inch side pieces and one 41 inch piece that will run across the back of the closet.  Since we are installing 3 shelves, we need six side pieces and three back pieces. 

We are using a pink ruler to measure down one foot from the shelf bracket that is already in place. Joel is going to mark off about four places on the wall.

Next we grab our bracket wood and tr to line it up according to the marks Joel made with the ruler.  Put the level on the wood so you know that you have everything lined up perfectly.  Then mark the entire board with a pencil.  You do not want to be messing with leveling out the board when you start drilling. 

When you have the line drawn, put your level down and grab your power drill fitted with the thin drill bit.  Drill pilot holes through the wood and right into the wall.  You might need someone to hold one end of the board while you do this part of the project. 

This leaves you with holes that line up perfectly with the board.

Now you need the 1/4 inch drill bit.  That is the size hole that our anchors need.  Your anchors may be a different size so drill accordingly.

If your screw is not going directly into a stud (A stud is usually a 2x4 that is behind the drywall or plaster.  The studs or 2x4's create the frame work for your walls.  Newer homes should have a 2 x 4 every 16 inches.  Older homes that have plaster walls do not have a regulated spacing for the studs.) then you need to use an anchor or molly.  I prefer to use anchors because they are much easier to use in my opinion.  So the holes that will need anchors will have to be re-drilled with the 1/4 inch drill bit.    

Insert the anchor into the 1/4 inch hole.  If you are having a hard time getting the anchor into the hole, a few taps with a hammer will help. 

Now put the screw driver tip into the drill.  It is time to attach the board to the wall.  :-)

It is very good idea to start the screws in the board before you go to the wall.  Hubby used the power drill to get these screws started, but I were going to do it, I would have started them with a regular old fashioned screw driver. 

Eye ball your board before you start attaching it.  You might think this is a silly step, but believe me if you get the board upside down and have to unscrew to flip it, you will not be thinking this is such a silly step. 

When everything looks good, screw the board to the wall studs or into the anchors. 

This is what we wound up with. I have a few important notes for you.

• Number one.  Attach the middle board first.  When that is attached to the wall, you can work on the two side boards at the same time.  ( Be sure to eyeball the side boards up before attaching them.  It is really easy to mix the boards up.) 
• Number two.  You are going to do a lot of bit changing.  Just be prepared.  

We added some particle board shelves that we cut down to size.  All we need to do now is wipe everything down and then fill up all that space. 

Look it!  I am so excited.  I am feeling so organized right now.  I'm just thrilled with the results. 

Here is a close up of all the stuff I could get on one shelf.  My other cabinets are so happy now that they are not over stuffed.

Turn wasted closet into attractive and usable storage space.  Check.  :-)

This is the product we used for the shelves.  If we had used pine boards, it would have cost $90.00 for the wood alone plus I would have had to purchase stain and varnish for the wood...not to mention the additional work of staining and varnishing.  This option was half the price of the wood and way less work.

Be Our Guest

Because we live in an area that usually gets a lot of snow in the winter, our family and friends usually choose spring, summer, and fall to come visit us which is fine with us. We love having visitors especially when we can go outside and play. Since we were having such a mild winter, and hubby's parents from the south were having an extremely white winter, they decided to come for a visit in February.



The kids and I went to work putting the guest room together. Our library doubles as a guest room. So we had to get the library turned into the guest room and plan a super week of food, fun and making their room as comfortable as possible.



The kids brought the beds up from the basement and helped me make the beds.





We have these little niches that are really quite useful. It is a great spot to tuck a few essentials as well as a few decorative items to display. I found this white bath set awhile ago and I love putting it out when we have guests. I have lotion in the pump canister, cotton balls in the short canister and the last one is a toothbrush holder.



Recognize these little snowflake luminaries? I love these guys. I went shopping around the house to find pieces to decorate the guest room for winter. Our guest room is usually a library or music room...but that is a post for another day.



I try to keep the room as empty as possible so the guests have room for suitcases and bags. This chest is a great spot to store extra blankets and pillows, it works as bench or it's a great spot to put your suitcase.





Even though this is our library, I still like to leave a few magazines for guests to thumb through.



I also like to put a little info together for any visitors. Here I have the weeks menu typed out as well as a local map with a few places highlighted. Sometimes I add a schedule or little pamphlets from local points of interests if it is the visitors first time in our area.



A vase of flowers on the night stand is always a nice touch when I can pull it off. Also the little box on the night stand is a mini medicine chest.



I love the sample section at Target. I am always grabbing things to toss in the box or the box I keep in the guest bath. In this box, I have a few Tylenol packets, tissues, tweezers, a safety pin, band aids, sunscreen, Q tips, and antibiotic cream for a cut. It always varies as to what you will find in my guest box, but my biggest tip is to check expiration dates before every guest comes to stay.



And this is why our guest room usually functions as a library. We are a book loving family and before we have guests come, we all go in and grab an armful of books to keep us happy while we loan the room out.



Finally a few empty drawers go a long way to making a guest feel like they are not living out of a suitcase for the duration.



Hope you enjoyed the guest room tour.