Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Why I am SO happy anyway, reason one:

These past few weeks have been sort of rough for me. Nothing major, just lots of small stressors. While Chris has lots of great options to choose from in DC now, I am still hoping his dream job will work out. We haven't settled on a state to take the bar in (although today is the last day for UT so...) Chris has been traveling to DC A LOT meaning lots of one on two time for me and the boys. I haven't been sleeping very well, lots of very vivid emotionally charged dreams, so I wake up tired. BUT I still feel very happy, mainly because I feel like I have accomplished a ton in the past week and accomplishing projects always make me happy.

THE BUREAU
Although I originally wanted to create side tables, Chris and I found this amazing "secretary" at the local thrift store. Woo hoo project for little Miss Crawford's room. I had been wanting to do something like this since I found inspiration in a Country Living Magazine at the cabin over spring break. We scored it for 15 bucks and I put myself on a 25 dollar budget. This is what we started out with (sorry it is a bad picture)

Three Twilight viewings later we have this:
I wanted to go all out and paint it pink but since this room is still an imaginary one I thought I should go with something a little more subtle. There was no way I was doing white or black though so I got this soft green called restless. I was going to order pink crystal handles off eBay but didn't have the patience to wait and they would have put me over budget so I settled for the crystal ones they had at Home Depot. I think it turned out nice. I haven't decided if I am going to try and strip off the few blotch's on the back part or just paint all of it... Regardless my favorite part is the inside. The memo boards and hooks and baskets were all in the bureau in the magazine and I love them! Now there are places to hang her little hats and necklaces and put pictures of her brothers :) I am going to use the little nooks for some of her shoes etc. It is now taking up a significant amount of space in our living room, but has also provided Liam's newest favorite place. He places for LONG lengths of time shoved in between the bureau and the Eiffel tower. He brings a few toys and just hangs out in his little nook. That is of course when he is not doing this:Two Little Birds Sat On A Window
The two little paintings inside the bureau were another project this week. I tried my first ever painting on canvas with acrylics. I LOVE fat little birds and since I can't find any paintings for the room that I like (or could afford) I thought I would try to do my own. While I love the birdies I found that I lack any sort of talent writing in paint. I wish that part turned out cuter but I have no idea how to make it better. I plan on attaching ribbon to the top and hanging them somewhere in her room.
Spring Clean

I have REALLY wanted to do some gardening since the weather is GORGEOUS, but unfortunately flowers are pretty expensive right now! So I settled for some lovely daffodils from Trader Joes. They really brighten up the place! These were also my inspiration for some new pillows for our couch. I used the same feather pillows and sewed new covers for them from one of Leslie's and my favorite Amy Butler fabrics. Not too girly but still fun! Of course they are a much easier target for spills then the previous DARK navy velvet but oh well it will be fun while it lasts. The biggest thing I have done this week though is a major dejunking and reorganizing of every closet in the house. I must say our closests have never been so clean or so organized. I open them up to put away the laundry now and sigh with satisfaction. Of course no one else really appreciates it but me but hey if it is going to make it easier for me to put away our mounds of laundry then it is worth it. Seriously I invite you to come to our house and gaze upon the beauty that is an organized food storage pantry or two year-olds clothes closet. I think this was particularly a huge project due to the TINY amount of storage we have. But it feels good to already have everything we won't wear or use until we have moved already packed. My soon to be very rotund belly is happy about that! I must give a big thank you to my pick me up musicians Jack Johnson, Colbie Caillet and Jason Mraz. If my life had a soundtrack I would hope it would be mainly their songs.

4 comments:

Heidi said...

WALLPAPER for the inside. See my friend Jenica's blog... little green notebook. I'm sure there is something about wallpaper in closets and such.

Crawford Family said...

I know I tried finding some wallpaper I liked but have yet to find ANYTHING remotly cute in my price range. I also looked at contact paper and have turned up empty handed there also

Garity said...

I love the color and the whole idea. $15 for the bureau...are you serious? Man, you are going to have to show me the thrift stores there. That would be unheard of where we moved from in VA. My mom got me addicted to a consignment store there in W'burg called Velvet Shoestring (I think that's what it's called) and I've had fun but I'll have to check out some of the thrift stores while I'm there on home leave.

aftonicole said...

ok, I don't even know you, but I'm pretty sure you live or lived in Williamsburg, but....those pillows are beautiful and I want them! nice picks!