Have I gone too far?

Very soon, I am going to show you the completed pool house! FINALLY, right? I had a great time finishing it and love it!

While completing the details, I ran into an expense that I wasn't amused with. I custom made a bed skirt for the queen size bed in this space. Instead of sewing it onto a big square of white fabric which is the norm, I decided to just attach it around the edge with velco! Easy and simple right? Well, that velco was going to cost like $40! I needed many yards for this, of course. I have no problem spending money on something that I love or that adds value to a space or is needed. But $40 on velcro? That you will never see or ever use? What a waste!

I am all about finding a shortcut if it's available. I am just fine with my solution and it worked great. But some of you may think I have gone too far. The Nester, I am pretty sure, would be proud as this is certainly a spin on her 'mistreatment' mentality! But a few may think that this combination of frugality and craft skills is a bit much. Here's what I did.

I HOT GLUED the bed skirt on. Yup, I did. Rough edges and all. Will this ever be seen by human eyes ever again? Nope. When you sleep in a guest room, do your lift the mattress? If you do, don't visit me!!! I think it's pretty brilliant and it was FREE! Yes, I have some glue sticks lying around . . . that was no issue! Here is a shot of me hot gluing!

If you wonder how I will wash this, well how often does one wash a bed skirt anyway? But I have already prewashed all the fabric (yes, it said dryclean only but I am wild and risky and dangerous like that) and can easily just pull it off, and wash and dry on low settings and then glue again! If I do this once a year I will be impressed. Tell me if you wash your bed skirts more often (this is the only skirt I own so I'm not up on this perhaps?) and if I'm crazy but I think it will be just fine!

If you wonder how I did this, it was pretty simple. I used pins to space the fabric where it was needed and then stuck pins straight through the fabric into the box spring to get the edge hitting the floor correctly. Once it was all in place, I just started at one end with the glue gun and moved around the bed, taking out the pins as I went. I went through perhaps 6-8 glue sticks? I just sat in the middle of the box spring--easy!

Here is a peek at the pillow shams that I made. I think you have to get your main fabrics as perfect as you can and that can't often be done with store bought items. I am a firm believer in spending money on the inspiration fabrics and then blending it with affordable and simple complimenting items. I'll show you the entire bed the next time but you will see these pillows mixed with simple items from Ikea! I think it's all about balance when you want to create something that looks fabulous but don't want to spend a fortune. So yes, this complete room will show you pillow shams custom made from $40/yard fabric and a huge queen size comforter from Ikea for far less than that! It's all about balance! The adorable Sea Horse pillow is from Stein Mart!

I will show you the rest soon!

Kid's Wall Art

When we moved into our new house, I did a LOT really FAST! My friends will tell you how nuts I was and how much I got done which is true, BUT the reality is that I rushed through a lot to get things pulled together. Here is an example.

My son Carter's bedroom is a super hero theme. He had quite the dress up collection so I wanted to do a hero's theme without buying Spider Man bedding or anything else that was expensive so that his room could change easily. So I bought some fun costumes the day after Halloween and bought these cute 4 x 4 inch canvases. He has a custom bed next to this area with some spaces to stash his favorite things so I decided to use "Hero's Hideaway" on the wall. I painted the canvases a color that is in his bathroom and used a red paint market to put on the letters and a black market to 'age' the edges and I was DONE! Quick, fast, easy and DONE! Here they are! I put them on his wall over the costumes and it was great! (Here they are on my floor as I forget to take a picture of them on the wall before I took them off for their makeover . . . )In the past year, I've been trying to upgrade some of these quick things. I knew they weren't as good as they could be but hadn't thought too much about them. My friend Lisa came over and told me about some Super Hero scrapbook paper and suggested I decoupage them. I started looking for the items I'd need and didn't find paper that matched his room as most were like a newspaper print or the hero was big for such a small canvas. I was quite disappointed as it was a great idea. Now what?? Then one day, I saw wrapping paper and it all came together! I ordered letters from Uppercase Living and here is what I started with to redo the canvases. I left the sides the same color. Cut the paper with the letters in mind as I wanted them to fit well with the art. I then glued the squares on the canvas with a glue stick, blended the edges into the black edges of each canvas by rubbing on black ink and placed the letters on. They didn't "pop" enough so I used one of my favorite tricks--a white gel pen! I just outlined each letter with the white pen and they look great! Here is the entire area! The uniforms are hung with wig forms. When I was planning, I was trying to figure out how to get these on the wall. I started searching for 'hat stands' and then 'wall hat stands' online and that eventually led me to wig stands and forms on ebay! They mount on the wall and are made for stores to sell wigs and are perfect!
I STILL need to do roman shades on his 3 windows. We've been here 2 years and I am still NOT DONE! No one ever is though, right? I plan to decoupage a cornice in James' room and have FINALLY had the main part cut but have I finished it yet? No.

This week is a good project week for me as I am home all week while family is visiting so I hope to get more up soon and hope to have a fun, busy and creative summer! I hope you are able to do the same . . . Perhaps there is a cornice board in my future?

A few things in the Pool House

I finally had an ENTIRE day to craft for myself! Yay! This is what happens when an ADD girl with an entire day crafts! I needed to laminate some labels and had no more chairs to move to so that's when I organized my projects again! I got lots done! My poolhouse is NOT done but I wanted to show you a few things! I haven't printed the actual labels as I still need to sort into all my new bins but the pretty tags are ready for labels once I get to that part! The tags on the metal buckets are laminated so I can changes things around and put on a new label whenever I want.

Fun decor

More with some empty spots ready to fill.

I started sewing but have lots to finish. This is part of some small curtains covering lower parts of bookcases for hidden storage. I am making pillow shams with the print fabric and bed skirt with the green.

Here's my clock! The furniture is white so this is perfect right??? Ha! No way! This is my clock 'before' and I bought it at Walmart for a whole $4! This is my favorite type of decorating project!

Here it is after! The little sign says "it's 5 o'clock somewhere' in case you can't read it!

Not a good zoom quality but I had to make sure you saw all the fun bling on it--it's quite fun to do something girly since I'm a Mom of 2 boys!

Love my new stainless steel desk where I will do lots of sewing! Here's what I have on one corner.

Bedding isn't done but throw pillows are ready! Stein Mart has fabulous pillows!

I sure hope I can get the room done so I can show you the rest but had to share a few details since I finally got lots done!

House Tour-Pool House (the before)

Welcome to my Pool House! This is a small little building that is attached to the pool area. I actually took these pictures many, many weeks ago. Currently, you can't walk in it. See that white cabinet right there? That was in the twins' nursery that you saw last week! Removing that began the mess that is now my Pool House as everything in it got set on the couch. That was the plan though! First, I'll show you how it was and then tell you what I am up to . . . There is a bathroom that I will show you with the 'after' of this redo. This space has worked great for what I have needed it for. That would be to hold spare drinks, be the bathroom where wet bathing suits land (should be on a hook but it always seems to be the floor) and allow my parents a quiet place to sleep when they stay here! I didn't show you the fridge because it's boring and ugly but it is behind the door when you walk in to the left. It is full size and is fabulous for extra drinks and more freezer storage. We live FAR from a grocery store so this is a necessity. The couch is a sofa bed and though it is fine, it is not the most comfortable thing. The storage was minimal but worked for the room.

So why am I changing it? My home is very open and flows from room to room and anyone that lives this way knows the only problem--no storage! No closets! I LOVE my house but I need a place for STUFF! What stuff? Sewing, crafting, gift giving, client items I am holding, insane amount of kitchen books and magazines I keep for work inspirations, projects I am working on, decor items and I'm sure other things I'm not thinking of. Even silly stuff like I am hosting bunko and have bought stuff--I have no where to STASH it! I will have several 'project/event' bins and that would become a project until the event is over! My scrapbooking area in the house is perfect and is staying as it. The other craft items are crowding it so they will go away and allow me to scrapbook inside and go to the pool house for everything else. I am nervous about how much space a bed will take up but my parents do need a more comfortable place to sleep when they visit so a queen size bed will fit in as well. I'm quite excited to get it done!

As far as the style of the new room, I am getting rid of any basic 'country' blue but am sticking with the yellow, softer green and more teal blue tones, like the pictures about. LOTS of white will be coming in with some natural tones and rot iron but my 'rule' is no black, dark brown or any red! I LOVE black and red and it is everywhere so I want this room to have a different feel than the rest of my home. I was born in Cape Cod and am trying hard to evoke that feeling without having anything say 'beach', since I don't live on the beach! Do you know how hard that is? Seems everything cute in these tones says "beach"! We'll see if I pull it off! When I walk in, I want to feel relaxed and calm yet inspired and happy.

Here's a fun grouping over the couch that I need to find a home for. Every year in high school, my friends and I had our portrait taken. Then in 2007, the 12 of us that have stayed insanely close and vacation together every year had a 'redo' taken in Atlanta! So 5 pictures that we all LOVE to look at must stay! Many of them have slept in this room and they are all coming here for a long weekend in July and some will stay here so these must work into the space somehow! The name plates are hard to read but it has the year each was taken, 1986-1990 and then 2007.
I hope I get done with this room soon, though I'm guessing it won't be until April at the rate things are going! I've been VERY busy with work and will show you what I've been up to soon!

House Tour-Home Office

This part of my House Tour is my Home Office. Though I have to tell you, it is NOT just a home office. It is a home office, craft room, tv room, mudroom, pantry and main family entry. Oh, and it gets better--it's only 7' wide. One 'issue' with a farmhouse, at least the way we made it, is that is has to be symetrical. Our house has a center and then even sides and 2 stories so 4 'boxes' exactly the same size where all the rooms fit. So if I wanted one room to be bigger, I had to widen all 4 sections. Basically, to finish this long explanation, this 'room' ended up crammed! I was rather distraught with this space as I dreamed of a huge workroom with a work island in the center but knew that it was the only 'make sense' option when I finalized the plans. I spent a lot of time while designing this space to keep it open while maximizing the storage and ensuring that every inch was used wisely. I don't think you will feel like this space has too much in it but you will notice that every inch of these walls has something built into it or something on it!

Because it is a long alley of a room, it is very hard to photograph so I will do my best!

Here is my desk which is what you see from the entry while looking through the dining room. These cabinets hold TONS! The upper cabinets are deep in order to fit drawer systems and the open display helps prevent this area from looking like a big wall of cabinets. I am a big binder girl so I love my binders being out and available at any moment. I had a plug planned for this cabinet and in the basket by my binder is all our chargers--just put in your ipod or phone and it's not out on a counter!

This area is to the right of the desk. I had fun designing this wall because it was a big challenge--the window and small area had me stumped for a while! The window seat is something I drew with my carpenter and then had him cut it and nail it and I did the rest. It has storage underneath and holds things that I don't need often but want available. The craft cabinet has lots of scrapbooking items as well as a drawer that holds this year's school work that the kids bring home that I want to keep.

Here is a view of this area from the other end of the room. You can see that across from the cabinets is a built in area that keeps ALL my craft items!

The skirt hides boring storage and hides glue sticks and other functional craft tools, scrapbook work in progress, page supplies and pending scrapbook work. Above the cabinet is my jar heaven. I blogged about this before but to keep this together for the House Tour, I'll repeat a bit! The jars don't need much explanation--any craft item I have is here. I use my ribbon weekly and love that jar! The magazine bins at the very top hold things that I call 'resources'--things that I want just in case like scrapbook magazines or catalogs for future inspiration, catalogs that I don't plan to shop from right now but want for possible future shopping, kids yearbooks, volunteer reference items that I have to hold onto, every packet of school pictures where you use 5 of them and don't know what to do with the rest, etc.

Sitting to the left of the cabinets in a fun spinning system that holds all my scrapbook embellishments and above that is where I keep my often looked at catalogs along with things I need by the door--coupons, gift cards and items I need to take somewhere such as deposits.

The pantry is pretty simple--great storage. I had an outlet put inside so my roomba is always charging and my pencil sharpener is always plugged in too, but I don't have to see it.

Here is a view from the pantry and mudroom end. The door, which is our side entrance, is in between the craft/office space and the pantry/mudroom space. At the end of this long room is our half bathroom. You can see that the side of the pantry is where I keep my calendar system. I use Outlook and print my calendar every few weeks for my family to view. That way my husband can't say he didn't know because I can then point out that the calendar is right by the door!

This mudroom area is right across from the pantry. Shoes go under the bench, and the left basket has my younger son's sports items and the right basket has things that need to go out of the house like umbrellas, sports glasses and anything that we need to take somewhere or that just belongs in our cars! The bins above have storage for things we need randomly like scouting items, cooler bag for long games, sports items, etc. The boxes above hold photos from my pre-digital days.

This space is maxed out in storage even though it is not a big room. I hope it shows you that you can get function out of any space with the right planning!

My system

I get teased. It's a problem but also an amusement. I am an organizer. I love to be organized. My brain requires I be organized. Friends recently commented that they wanted to know where 'my stuff' was. Where is 'my stash' and 'my piles'. I have systems, not stashes! I answered questions which got them going on teasing me more about how their brain hurt from all the info. It made me realize that I should probably show you instead of tell you because it is NOT that complicated. I think it is really simple. Cut and Dry. Black and White. If you have systems, there's only a few places where you need to put things.

So, Follow me through a day!

Here's my plan. I am going to be out of town all weekend. I leave Friday morning. So I will come home to several days of mail, paperwork from school, magazines, sales flyers, etc. I will show you my "process". I will photograph and list what I had to work through on Monday and publish this sometime on Tuesday! And you will see that it is not only SIMPLE but also PRETTY and NEAT! I promise, no headaches . . .

Happy Fall Ya'll!

Since this week is Thanksgiving, I thought I would post pictures of my Fall Decorations! I don't do Halloween since we are in a rural area where people don't trick or treat (don't worry, we go somewhere else, my kids are not deprived of 15 lbs of candy that they don't need). Instead, I do "Fall" and leave it up until the end of November! Though I will admit that this year is a bit different. Because I am hosting a baby shower here the weekend of Thanksgiving and going out of town the following weekend, I decided to start Christmas early! But normally, Fall is up through Thanksgiving weekend! I stopped decorating and tweaking once I realized that things had to change but here is what I did before I had to take it down!

I thought about not showing you my front door because I'm not loving the garland above. It was very heavy and didn't 'swag' very well but whatever, I tried it and it didn't work! Next year I will get something that drapes better, deal with it!

Here are some areas in my entry:

This is living room and dining room areas-I didn't do much in either as I still like clean spaces when it comes to where we spend a lot of time!

Here are pictures from my kitchen:

Even my coffee bar got some fun candles!


I am looking forward to a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and a busy weekend celebrating the pending arrival of new nieces! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!