A rug can make all the difference...

Warning. This is not one of those inspiring posts where I show you a drab room and then throw in a great rug and it makes all the difference and Voila! A perfect room. Nope, quite the opposite actually...

This is the story of what happens when your husband takes your 4 year old to go pick out a rug as a "bonding activity" while you are taking your younger daughter to a gym class. This is what happens when your daughter picks the ugliest rug in Pottery Barn Kids and then gets totally attached to it, so when your husband says, "You can return it!", you know you really can't without being the horrible witch of a mother who would rather have a pretty room than a happy child.

That being said, I finally finished putting together Maya's room. In a way, the rug freed me. I didn't have to obsess over every decorative accent-the room was never going to be one of this hip and stylish little girl's rooms you see on Pinterest. Nope, it was going to be your average 5 year old girl room.

We painted the room the same color that she had in her room in the old house. Pink.



Then we filled it with all of Maya's furniture, toys and treasures (ie. crap). How many doo dads and thingamagiggys can a 5 year old have? A LOT... So now it looks like this:



See the ugly rug??

In Maya's old room, I filled the largest wall with a collection of picture frames of her and her friends and family. I wasn't sold on doing it again, so I figured I'd just get some girly prints--I scored big at Home Goods one day:





I took the letters that were above Maya's bed in the old room and put them on their own wall, so they could be more featured:



And then found some sticky mirror butterflies at Home Goods that were about $6..



And that there is the girliest room you'll find. And you know what? She loves it. So I guess that's all that matters...right??

Halloween Decor

I can't say that in the past we've ever done that much Halloween decor, but after seeing our kid's fascination with our neighbor's big blow up pumpkin on their front yard, I decided to head to the store to do up our outside...

First I went to Target. That was a BUST. Second week of October and almost all of the Halloween decorations were gone and they were making room for Christmas stuff. Say what?

Next stop, Party City. MUCH better. I managed to score a ginormous spider, a bunch of webbing and some Halloween pumpkin lights.





But that wasn't enough-I needed some crows. Couldn't find any at AC Moore, but I did find a cute Trick or Treat sign--the candy corn sold me, since I have two big candy corn fans in the house.

And finally, at Michael's, I found crows...and they had some sparkle, just to make them even more attractive.



Of course, Maya and Zoe couldn't resist the fun decorations at the bird store in the local shopping center, so we got one of those too:



How much dorkiness would I reveal if I said I was tempted to get one for every holiday? ;)

So, here is the whole picture...I don't think we went overboard, do you?

My first encounter with spray paint.

Spray painting is all over the blogosphere. Amy spray painted this cool mirror. Sherry spray painted her outdoor furniture. And Melissa did a lamp.

So I decided that I could do this. How hard can it be to yield a bottle of spray paint and transform something completely?? Well, it's not that hard. But I definitely lost more than a few brain cells.

We bought some gorgeous mums when we went apple picking and I really wanted to decorate our front walk with them. However, the plastic planters that they came in just weren't cutting it. I looked around for some cool planters that had a modern twist but were simple, but couldn't find anything--October, as it turns out, is a hard time of year to look for outdoor decorating stuff!

So I decided to tackle my first spray painting project. I picked up some of those basic terracotta planters you find in any gardening section-I got them at Home Depot. While at Home Depot, I picked up a bottle of spray paint--the color was called Oil Rubbed Bronze. I liked the fact that it had some metallic sheen to it.

I decided that I wanted to do the project in our garage. Why, you might ask, did I decide to spray violently toxic fumes in an enclosed space? Oh, just figured I'd avoid the breeze outside. So I went to task:

Before:





I sprayed the hell out of those mofos. And let me tell you, after about 5 minutes of spraying I got the stomach and head ache from HELL. I had NO idea why I felt like that, but I was almost doubled over. I sprayed the rest of them and walked out into the fresh air and started to feel better almost instantly..but they looked good!





I let them dry overnight and came back in the morning to replant the mums into them. Who knew that the mums were in a much wider planter than these? Not me...but I made it work. I put them up on our front walk and I think they look pretty nice, if I say so myself.





So go on...go buy yourself a can of spray paint today!

Small Details.

Well, maybe bathroom mirrors aren't small details. In fact, after living without a bathroom mirror for 4 months, I am pretty sure they aren't!

We had a small glitch with bathroom mirrors. Originally, the builder had specified for one sconce above the mirror in the master bath--we have two matching vanities on opposite sides of the bathroom-quite possibly the best invention ever for a product hog (and by that, I mean my husband). In any case, we had our heart set on sconces that would go on each side of the mirror. Unfortunately, the builder had already installed the electrical for the single sconce. Not a real problem, he said, he would cap it off and install the new electrical and we could just get a mirror that was large enough to cover the cap. Well, that meant that we had to find a mirror with dimensions of 30"x40". That's a big mirror.

We finally found one at Restoration Hardware. And it was backordered. And backordered some more. And finally, on September 20-something it arrived on our front step (or garage, but these are small details). We were ambitious and thought we could install them ourselves. No dice-these suckers are not only huge but ridiculously heavy and the last thing you want in a bathroom is no mirror AND a huge hole in your wall. So we enlisted the help of one of our builder's men. Thank goodness. And now for the big reveal...

BEFORE:





AFTER:
(Excuse the bad lighting)

Before & After: Beach House

Well, hello there. The rest of the summer got away from me and before I knew it I was in the throws of first days of school, girl's trips and general stay at home business. I have been on a mission to clean and organize...and catch up. So that means, I am back!

Before I get back to the grind of our house here, I wanted to share some before and after shots of my mom's house at the beach. She bought the house about 3.5 years ago and as soon as I saw the house I knew it was the one. My mom wasn't so sure (and you'll see why from the before pictures!). My mom is a fan of simple, clean design and doesn't like to do work to a house-she wants it move in ready. I however, fell in love with the layout--the house had been a small one floor cottage that a builder had expanded. So, the existing house remained and a large master suite was added onto the other side of the house, meaning that my kids, husband and I would have our own area of the house. Perfect for a little separation of chaos and tranquility ;) I also loved the single level openness of the house. The previous owners were traditional and had a love of wallpaper and window treatments. And color.

Here are the before and after shots..I didn't bring my wide angle lens so I couldn't get the greatest shots:

Before Dining Room:




Dining Room After:







Den (our family room) Before:





Den After:





Nook off the Living Room before:





Nook after:





Entry before:




Entry after:




Ok..some of these pictures really aren't great. But trust me, it's a lot prettier now. It's amazing what some simplifying and white paint can do. Of course, there are some parts of the house that were fabulous and didn't need any changing. The bathrooms were all great-simple subway tiles, carrara, etc. My mom's master bath is gorgeous:





The kitchen is great too and I drew a lot of inspiration from her kitchen for ours:








(The stools are gone now).

Of course, in 3.5 years, the house isn't the only thing that has changed!


Maya before:



Maya after:



Until next time!

This post is brought to you by...

Hydrangeas. I am at a loss here, kids. I am away for a month at my mom's beach house, so I can't really blog about updates to our house. I have one in the works here that I can show you, and I'm thinking about doing a little house tour of some of the exteriors of the homes here...

But in the meantime, there are LOTS of hydrangeas here, in every color. So here are some purty pictures and a few maybe-new-to-you facts about these flowers...



While there are approximately 23 species of Hydrangea, only five are widely cultivated in the U.S. The most popular species is Hydrangea macrophylla, which is commonly known as bigleaf, French, garden or florist’s hydrangea. This Japanese native is rated as hardy to USDA cold-hardiness zone 6. It produces large inflorescences of white, pink or blue flowers in early summer.



Hydrangeas grow best in moist, well-drained soil. Most hydrangeas benefit from some shade, especially in hot climates. Bigleaf, oakleaf and smooth hydrangeas will usually perform well on the north side of a house or planted at the edge of a woodland (see image at right). As discussed earlier, growing hydrangeas in deep shade is not necessary and can greatly reduce flowering.

The amount of sun that hydrangeas can tolerate depends on species, climate and availability of water.



Flower color in H. macrophylla is dependent on cultivar and aluminum availability. Aluminum is necessary to produce the blue pigment for which bigleaf hydrangea is noted. Most garden soils have adequate aluminum, but the aluminum will not be available to the plant if the soil pH is high. For most bigleaf hydrangea cultivars, blue flowers will be produced in acidic soil (pH 5.5 and lower), whereas neutral to alkaline soils (pH 6.5 and higher) will usually produce pink flowers. Between pH 5.5 and pH 6.5, the flowers will be purple (see image at left) or a mixture of blue and pink flowers will be found on the same plant.



Hydrangeas are moderately toxic if eaten, with all parts of the plant containing cyanogenic glycosides. Hydrangea paniculata is reportedly sometimes smoked as an intoxicant, despite the danger of illness and/or death due to the cyanide.



Sources:
http://www.usna.usda.gov/Gardens/faqs/hydrangeafaq2.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrangea

Pretty Playroom Pictures...

One of my many favorite things about the new house is that the girl's playrooms are now on the first floor, right off the family room and only about 20 feet from the kitchen. The girls were not going downstairs by themselves in the old house and it felt really secluded. Also, we had to create a small playroom area in the living room of the house, which just wasn't all that visually appealing...



I love the new playroom, though I think it still needs some more decorative flair and some weeding out of toys...I mean, how many loose game pieces and McDonald's Strawberry Shortcake dolls can one really use??

What you see from the living room:





My favorite part of the room in this PennyPeople prints that I got on Etsy:





They came unframed, but they are made to fit perfectly in Ikea frames. Helloooo? So easy.

I have grand plans for a big chalkboard/magnet wall for this side of the room:



But, not enough time or motivation this month..so we'll see when that happens. I should have a lot of time in the fall!

How do you guys keep your playrooms looking spiffy with all that kid's crap??