Another Bumblebee party pic.

Tomorrow is baby shower day.  Can't wait!

Bumblebee Baby Shower

I'm hosting a baby shower this weekend and the theme is bumblebees.  Mom to be doesn't know the gender of the baby, so we're keeping it fairly neutral other than the pops of lilac throughout since purple is the mom's favorite color.  Right now I'm struggling with placement of the decorations, but the clothing line on my fireplace is my favorite.  I think we'll put the gifts on the hearth underneath it.  It's crazy how much there is still left to do and how little time.

Went walking...again!

This is almost becoming a habit ;)

1 hr 8 minutes

4.28 miles

Upped my pace from last week, and squeezed in an extra mile.  LOVE it!

Exercise.

Last week I walked twice, both times right at about 3 miles.  It felt AMAZING!
Despite the very long pause in my workouts, I wasn't sore, but rather energized.  I wanted to keep going, but knew an hour was about all I could do each day.  Fast forward to this week.
Trying to get motivated, but the threat of rain looms (YAY!!!!) and my motivation is non existent.
This couch is just too darn comfortable...

Dining room ooomph.

After living in the house for a few months, and getting things in their places, I realized our dining room was lacking some oomph, and that needed to be changed asap!

Here's what it started out as. 

A large table, that I love love love and 2 paintings that the hubby and I brought back from a trip to Paris 4 years ago.  Wow, 4 years.  It feels like yesterday.  Anyway, back to the issue at hand.

I dug around the house and found a brand new table runner I hadn't even unwrapped yet (can you tell I like blues yet?), and an old shallow bowl.  Easy.  Though it looked really weird empty, so while at Ikea one day I found these funky rattan like balls to put into it.  Simple and cute...and cheap!  I was content.  Finally, the room was done.  Simple, clean, and colors that make me happy.  

And that's when it happened.   Tidymom , posted this:  

Family Room Makeover

Remember how I said I was content?  Well, that flew right out the window!

I took one look at those glass shelves, and knew right away that  I needed one in my dining room.

I had an entire wall, just begging to be filled.  The metal frame, the glass, it would keep the room from feeling too "heavy" but it would finally get some oomph!

The next day, literally, I hopped into my car and got myself over to Ikea.  The 10 minute drive was almost too exciting to handle, yes 10 minutes!  I feel kind of lucky :D  I was on a mission.  I didn't bother going upstairs but made my way over to the warehouse, grabbed my giant box and headed home.

Now,  I don't have any before photos of the dining room without the shelf, or with the shelf completely empty, but I finally got it decorated the way I want.  I think.  Other than the photo frames needing photos, and the plants needing cute planters, I'm done.  Right?  

I have to admit, I'm a bit worried it's too busy, but I love all of the pieces on there,
so I'm not sure how to make it not so cluttered.  The painting, my daughter did, and she doesn't like it, lol.  Too bad for her, I do, and it matches my coral on the top shelf and the glass vase filled with sand and shells.

Oh and notice those AMAZING framed prints?  Those are from Gingiber and they are the perfect nautical addition.  All three are fun and unique, but that Narwhal.  Oh my!

My next task...clean/organize/decorate the study.  Yikes!

Entryway dresser update

Remember my little dresser from Craigslist?  Gee, I start a lot of posts with, "remember my"...I should work on changing that, huh?  Okay, back to my post :D

So I've been slowly finding things here and there for it, and it's starting to come together nicely.

As I'm sure you've noticed by now, I love the colors red and aqua, oh and yellow, and pink, and green, and...oh, but yeah really red and aqua.  It's in a lot of places around the downstairs and I'm sure it'll creep upstairs a little too once I start focusing on that part of the house.  A long, long, long time from now.

Okay, without more babble, here is the before, the before after, and the after :)

I still haven't found a chair that I absolutely must have, so the little shoe bench from our old house

is still sitting there.  It's working for us beautifully storage wise though, so I guess I'm not quite in a hurry to replace it just yet.

Oh right, back to the photos.  Here they are...

Ikea frames, LOVE them, especially the one in the back.

The little Dachshund statuette, from Hobby Lobby,  looks so much like our pup that I had to have it,

and the fake grass and red planter, thanks again Ikea!

The lamp is a temporary one, $10 on clearance at Target, is actually going into my son's room, though not that shade because it's oh so sparkly and I'm thinking he wouldn't be a fan, ha.  

An old mirror that my daughter's no longer had space for, some word art from Hobby Lobby ($10),

and a DIY letter W canvas/wood art.

And voila!  Now I just need a chair.

Oh and totally keeping it real, there's a backpack next to the dresser and about 7 pairs of shoes

shoved into that bench.  Two of which may or may not be mine :D

So there ya go.  I don't think I'm quite done though.  I think once I find a chair, this

small space will once again evolve.

Bedroom pillows, I can't stop!

After I made the new pillow covers I lived with them for a while.  Remember these?

I liked them, a lot.  But then, I brought in a painting that I hadn't unwrapped from the move, and the pillows just didn't...fit.  Too plain, too muted.  I needed red!

I began my hunt for that something special fabric and ended up at Hawthorne Threads and voila!  There it was!  An entire collection of the perfect colors, exactly what I had envisioned when I started my search.  Actually, no, even better than I had imagined.  

I tried to find them locally,  because delayed gratification isn't my strong suit, and managed to find a couple of the prints here, but not the two main ones that I absolutely HAD to have.  So I ordered my 2 fabrics and waited, not at all patiently.

They arrived last week, and today, on this very cold (for Texas) sleet filled day, I got to work.

Can I just say, that I am in LOVE?  

This pillow make over is spurring a deep urge to start looking for furniture for my room and to get it just the way I want. The only thing stopping me?  I just don't want to spend the money.  

Like, at all.

So, for now, my two little uber cheap Ikea side tables, my ooooolllldddd black chair, and the bed are it. Although, maybe a quick peek at craigslist...a dresser, some paint...oh the ideas!