2013 Home Goals

Do you make New Year's Resolutions?  Not me!!

Look, my reality is, I'm a busy mom raising four kids, trying to balance a full time job with my family and my home life.  I've got great support with The Builder, but the reality is, we really wing it some weeks.  My days of well organized chaos (aka, when I was a stay at home and could plan better!) have been gone for some time, and as much as I would LOVE to go back to simpler times, it isn't an option for us in the immediate or near future.  So I have to work with what we have!  And I have no complaints about that.

Now that being said, my home is sanctuary.  I need it to be comfortable and inviting.  When The Builder and I were dating, he lived in an apartment.  With no color on the walls, a stack of tires in his bedroom for a night stand and a Craftsman tool box in his living room for...an entertainment center?  Who knows, he and his roommate didn't even have a TV, let alone a sofa.  My place was the polar opposite.  I can't even move boxes into my living space without curtains up!  Thankfully, The Builder quickly grew to appreciate my need for color and completed rooms. He readily admits he could never go back to bachelorhood when it comes to having a home decorated.

Since we plan to be in this house for at least another 18 mos., in lieu of New Years resolutions, I'm making 2013 Home Goals!  If I was really organized, they'd be listed month by month...but I'm not. So here we go, in no particular order:

1. The Laundry Room - surprisingly enough, this room is driving me CRAZY for months now.  I still need to pick up the counter top at Ikea for the folding counter, have The Builder complete the storage for the laundry hampers, hang the artwork, and put a shelf for storage.  

2.  The Entryway - another area that frustrates me quickly in my house!  I'm lucky that it's open flows into the main portion of the house, but my kids have a terrible habit of dropping their things as soon as they walk in the door - not good for clutter control.  There's a coat closet directly off the front door, but I Have the hardest time getting my kids to actually USE it - yes, even though they don't have to take more than two steps.  I have this crazy idea that if I offer them a little more storage, they might use it...I know, probably delusional, but maybe if they could hang their backpacks on a hook and dump their shoes in a cubby it would keep me from being horrified when I open the door at night...

When you walk in the front door, to the left is the stairwell, similar to the one in the photo here.  I love the photo's and the monogram inspiration.  My wall is shorter in the stairwell, but I think I could make this work for my area.  

The storage bench is a project for The Builder!  He'll have to do some small modifications to meet our needs so that it will hold four hooks for our kids, but it's an easy fix.  The bench lid lifts up so I can toss store their shoes by the front door.  Of course if I ever move, I'm in trouble - this is the only house we've lived in that could accommodate a piece of furniture like.  But I'm not planning on moving again if I can help it, so he's going to humor me and build it!

3.  My Master Bedroom - there are lots of things I love about my master bedroom!  The nightstands The Builder made for us.  The wrought iron scrolled headboard I bought several years ago.  The curtains with the pop of color in them, and the duvet cover.  But there are still a few things missing...things I keep meaning to get to them...sigh...but again, it's another incomplete project.  So it's on my list to complete - before summer!

1 - the satin pillow.  I don't know exactly how I'm going to duplicate it, but I have the fabric, so I just need to try!  2 - the dresser.  This is another project for The Builder!  I don't have nearly enough drawer space and we could use the baskets to store our small collection of non-cartoon DVD's!  3 - another throw pillow.  It's just crazy I haven't completed the two throw pillows because I bought the fabrics months ago.  I also want to put a pretty tufted club chair in my bedroom - ideally, this one:

Source: overstock.com via Elona on Pinterest

I love the tufting and the size.  I have two corner windows and I hope think it would be a cozy spot to sit and read in the afternoons (ha ha, like I don't think I actually have the time to do that, but it sounds lovely!)  The chair is a bit pricey, but it's one of those things I think would be a good investment.  So I'm saving my pennies, lol, and maybe I an order it by Christmas!

There are several more small projects that need to be done - the artwork for the hall bathroom and for the powder room downstairs (I'm seeing a common thread with artwork being needed for multiple rooms - note to self...) and I haven't even tackled the sun room!  But the sun room isn't something I'm ready to even think about tackling in the beginning of winter. Of course winter will be mostly over by the end of February here in Houston, lol...

PS - No year in reviews either - I figure if you really want to go back to a project that I did this year, you'll pin it on Pinterest!!  I seriously don't know what I did before Pinterest when it comes to saving all my favorite "stuff"!

It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas...

I got some more Christmas decorating done this weekend!  The kitchen has been calling my name since last weekend (when I intended to get it done) but I had a few things I wanted to do.  Last Christmas, I was short a strand of garland of poinsettias - not a huge deal, but since I knew I was short, I made sure to pick up a strand of them on Black Friday.  

Then there were these wreaths.  I knew I wanted a little something "extra" in the kitchen.  I saw some wreaths hanging on ribbon on a pinterest, and that was my intent...and I probably will  do that...when I get some more command adhesive strips! So for now, because I wanted to show them, here they are on the knobs.  And I actually like how they look, but they'll drive The Builder insane having to take them off and on every time he wants to open a cabinet.  I can't have that.  I'm loving the poinsettia.  The black and white goes really well with my kitchen.  I am thinking about adding a little red garland to this, but we'll see.  I think next time I take a photo that our cereal dispenser is in, I'll make sure it's full too, lol.

Poinsettia garland also went up on the candelabra.  This is one of the new bows I posted about on Facebook as well.  I bought a bow maker years ago and went crazy making bows for the holidays...because I could.  And I've been using them over and over ever since.  But apparently you can only re-fluff them so many times before they just don't look right anymore.  Oops.  Last year I didn't even put them out.  Ironically, I buy new ribbon every year with the intent of updating the bows, so I had quite the stockpile when I sat down this afternoon!  The room you see behind the window is the sun room.  We have a major makeover planned in the spring so that we can use the space (the dog tore all the screens and they have to be replaced first) but next year, I plan to extend Christmas decorating there as well.  Is it bad that I'm planning it already....

Here's a close up of the bow.  This is the same ribbon I plan to hang the small wreaths on.  I absolutely love polka dots.  Love them!  And the colors go perfectly in my kitchen.  I thought the bow added a little more to the garland.  I'm definitely a "more is more" type of girl when it comes to Christmas!  Apparently some people see that as too commercial.  But I LOVE Christmas.  And if I can fill every room with the spirit of Christmas, then that's what I'll do!!  Every year I buy or make a few more things for Christmas.  I have boxes and boxes of Christmas decor.  They make me smile looking at them all year, anticipating putting them up.  Yes, I'm the crazy Christmas woman, lol...

My bistro area.  Some more poinsettia garland.  I love how this looks in here.  I didn't have the wrought iron curtain rod last year that curved around the bay window (The Builder put it up in the spring for me!) and the garland was difficult to hang last year.  Command adhesive strips work great on walls that are fairly smooth.  My aren't even close to being smooth (side note, I seriously hate heavy texture and if I ever buy this house, I plan to knock down after last piece of texture one wall at a time!!) so the hooks don't stay up well.  You can see one of the nutcrackers I painted black last year.  I see that Target has a great set of white nutcrackers available this year.  Clearly they pay attention to Pinterest too and how popular these were last year!  I'm very happy with my black ones.  I have several of these all over my kitchen.  With my white cabinets and neutral colored counter tops, I don't think white would look as good.

Finally, here's a close up of one of one of the black nutcrackers.  This is the medium sized one.  I also have a larger one in the corner of the kitchen and two small ones on the bakers rack.  I'm not 100% happy with how they're placed at the moment so I'll be moving them around the kitchen until they're jusssst right.  I'll post more photo's once I determine where they really need to be.

Still up to complete for decorating is my entry way and dining room. There are a few things up in the dining room, but nothing worth posting about yet. The powder room also got a Christmas update but I haven't had time to get photo's yet.  Maybe tomorrow!