Desk Pad Project

Chevron Prettiness

My hubby is proud to see my crafting hobby is bringing in a little fun money through my Etsy shop of scripture signs.  What he wasn't excited about was my computer and Silhouette machine always sitting out on the kitchen counter with paints, canvases, brushes and vinyl scraps. 

We decided I needed a little desk space where I can store my computer and Silhouette, so he cleared out a wall in the office and gave me some work space.  He also gave me our laundry room cupboard space for all my paints, crafts and other goodies.  (He also installed a lot of shelves into our garage to hold all my fabrics and craft supplies I only use occasionally). 

So, I went to Cost Plus and bought a simple white desk.  My husband had a black computer pad from work that he wasn't using anymore that he gave to me so I don't scratch my desk.  Awesome--except for the black, water-stained, plain look to it. 

Ugh.

Double ugh.

I finally took myself on a trip to Hobby Lobby for fabric and got some beautiful gray and cream chevron fabric.  I simply hot glued the fabric to the bottom of the pad and covered it tightly on top.  Gorgeous!

Much better!

In progress . . .

Now I need to find a mustard or gray chair with arms for my desk.  Any leads?  We will also get white shutters for the window soon.  It was trash day, so you couldn't see it, but usually our lovely trash cans are stored right outside and you can see the tops of them as you look out--awesome.  The white shutters will finish the window and hide the trash cans outside.  Add a pop of color in sky blue or mustard on the desktop wth a vase or accent piece and voila!  I'll be sure to show you all the final product when everything is done.  It is a blessing to have a workspace that is just for my computer and stuff!

And the winning look is . . . Our Gallery Wall "Look"

Well, folks, I am super thankful for your feedback on my gallery wall.  You can see the feedback post and the two looks voted upon here.  I went with the less structured look, and we got it all hung on the wall last night.  I LOVE it!

(By the way, putting paper on the wall FIRST to see how the frames will look is GENIUS!  That was a great time saver!)

It is far from finished.  I need to do my two scripture canvases--they will be white with black lettering.  I also need to order pictures for the frames.  I am doing black and white photos and trying to get a punch of color in the "look" with the two armchairs I want to get for either side of the TV console.  If you see any affordable, punch of rust or yellow or other fun color chairs, send me a link!

I can't wait to post the FINAL look--pictures, canvases, chairs and all. 

I posted this to:

Gallery Wall

You read about our paneling going in on our walls!  We love it, but now we begin projects on the rest of the room--a gallery wall, 2 matching, smaller chairs for each side of the TV console, and column drapes for the slider. 

I decided to tackle a gallery wall as my next project.  I'm doing black and white photos in black frames with white mats. 

Michael's was having a buy one, get one free frame sale last week, so I bought my frames.  I came home and started playing with the arrangement on the floor.  Once I liked it, I traced butcher paper and taped the paper to the wall to "see" the arrangement. 

(the orange and yellow flowers in the packaging will be black and white photos of our family)

(The lamp will be gone and the "H" will be there)

I started out with a structured look.  I was thinking it would look less "cluttered." 

Then my mom started playing with the side arrangements and I liked her looser look too.  I added two canvas pictures too, which I will paint white with black scripture letters.  Here is the arrangement on the floor.

I think I'm going with the second, less structured look shown in the three pictures right above, but what do you think?  I need feedback!  Ack!

Easter and Wall Panels

What a gorgeous Easter we had this year!  God gave us sunny, sunny weather; so thankfully my gamble on buying Easter short outfits for my boys worked.

Our family started the day at our church service and heard the best gospel message I've ever heard presented.  Seriously.  Our pastor, Mike Fabarez, broke down John 3, the story of Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night, and gave an amazing sermon.  Listen to it--you won't regret it!  You can hear it here.

Then we had a variety of family celebrations, starting with a brunch at our house.  I made eggs benedict for the first time--delicious.  The kids hunted for eggs, and we enjoyed the beautiful day. 

Micah hunting for eggs

Showing off his findings

Carter showing off his full basket

Getting down to business

We also were able to enjoy our new wall panels!  After two weeks of serious dust, they were done two days before Easter.  We spent ALL day Saturday wiping down cupboards, walls, shutters, windows, floors  . . . you name it.  I think the majority of the dust is gone.

I'll post a more thorough post about the panels soon, and I promise I'll get better pictures.  These were shot in a hurry on Easter. Here is a sneak peak. 

Happy Tuesday!

A Week in Pictures

Tonight is date night and I won 12 of these beautiful cupcakes from my amazing baker friend, Alicia's, giveaway!  Yay!  After a week that included a 3 year old with the stomach flu, decorating for an end of the year ministry dinner for 200 people, making the 3 teacher appreciation posters, a jog a thon at school, making 60 birthday treats for school, crazy hair night at AWANA on Thursday, construction going on throughout my downstairs, and just life, I am ready to have a relaxing night with my sweetie.

Here is a quick look at the week in pictures and numbers:

Six years old . . .T-ball time!  Our just turned six year old is loving his first experience playing baseball.

12 carame,l chocolate marshmallow pops.  I made these for a Girl's Night Out with some friends.  I love marshmallow pops!  Hot caramel made the marhsmallow melt a bit, but it was still gooey deliciousness.

4 months at the Crazy Chicken.  My husband worksin Marketing Finance for this company.  We sure are thankful for this job, and we love El Pollo Loco!

12 cupcake prizes.  Another picture of Alicia's amazing cupcakes.  They are red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese buttercream frosting.  Yummers!

60 marshmallow pops to hand out to Carter's class (2 per kiddo) for his birthday/being Star of the Week.

1 week of construction--about 1 to go.  Our family room, kitchen and small hallway are getting wall paneling!

ONE messy house.  This is the dust that is covering my downstairs.  I love the paneling that is going in my house, but I am a neat freak, and the dust from wood cutting is killing me!

7th day of work.  The inner paneling got installed.  No it just need the top and bottom quarter rounds and some paint!

7 pretty panels

4 pretty knick knacks.  If you read my blog, you know I l-o-v-e Costco.  I found these 4 malamine bowls with lids for under 20 dollars.

There is my crazy, blessed, busy, wonderful week at a quick glance. 

I didn't take a picture of my sick kiddo with "tummy bugs".  He was a trooper and barely cried even though it was his first time with the stomach flu.  He couldn't understand what was happening.  Poor little guy!

You can see my THREE superhero posters for teacher appreciation week in my last post.

Have a GREAT weekend!

Project Family Room

This was our walk through on our house in April 2010 (that is our nice realtor in the picture).  This is the way the family before us had the family room decorated--LOTS of furniture, dark peach tile on the floor and fireplace, a built in holding the TV and taking up precious space in the room.  It needed some work and reconfiguring.  I am by no means streamlined or contemporary, but I can't stand clutter.  Thankfully, they had a beautiful cutout niche above the fireplace and some nice white shutters on the windows.

We tore out the peach tile (which was in the whole house practically) and put in chocolate, distressed wood floors.  We put travertine on the fireplace and tore out the built in.  Here is the family room in process right before we moved into the house.  The tile has been torn up, the built in taken out and the paint colors for the niche are being chosen--thus the weird colors on the wall.

Here is our family room currently.  I apologize for the dark picture.  I have the wonderful habit of taking pictures at the worst time of day.  That is setting sunlight on our fireplace, not some weird design.:

(Here is the blank canvas wall I mention below)

I'm working on my family room this year.  After unemployment for our family in 2011, we are thankful for the gift of an income in 2012 and ready to jump back into house projects.  We recently had both crown moulding and pocket lights put into our family room ceiling.  We were tired of squinting at our guests whenever we sat in there at night--or we'd turn on our really bright patio lights just outside to add to the illumination of the room (sad!).

I'm loving the lights!  We had four added to the room, one focal spotlight for our fireplace and one in the "hallway" between the family room and the kitchen. 

The family room is tiny.  We don't have a teeny, tiny house, but the smallest rooms by far are both the family and living room.  Entertaining can be an issue since we often entertain 50-60 people when we have ministry leadership meetings/dinners at our home.  We knew about the issue when we moved into this house, but the positives in the house/yard outweighed this negative.  Thankfully, the yard is nice and big, but even southern California has limits on how often you can ask guests to sit outside. 

Because of this, we used leather ottomans as a coffee table, which also can be separated and moved as seats.  Our small couch holds about 3 guests, and right now we have a massive leather chair by the TV wall.
We want to move that chair elsewhere and get two proportionally smaller armchairs on each side of the TV console.  We also have three barstools right where I am standing to take the pictures, as we have a breakfast bar counter facing out into our family room.  These are handy to turn around and act as additional seating.

In addition, I would like to put white federalist moulding wrapping around the bottom half of the room to brighten up this part of the house.  It gets very little direct sunlight, and I am a girl who likes light and bright. 

I also want to do a photo wall around the TV.  I can't decide if I should have white frames or black.  I love white, but I am thinking that since they will surround the TV and almost camaflouge the flatscreen into the picture wall, they should have black frames with large, white matting.  The TV will have too much "weight" with white frames around it.  I will do all black and white photos.

 I also want to paint the 80's brass on the fireplace glass with a black metal paint and, eventually, I want to get a larger, crown moulding looking mantle to cover our lovely, thin plywood one. 

Finally, I want some long, ceiling to floor white column curtains to frame the slider that leads out to the backyard.  It is immediately to the right of the couch.

What are your thoughts, my decorating friends?  Do you have any ideas for the wall around the TV?  What kind of armchairs would you buy for each side of the TV console and what color would you prefer to see?  Right now I have creams, tans, rusts and golds in the room, but I'm open to another color.  All those colors blend nicely with our dark, red undertoned kitchen cabinets and wood floor. 

I'm excited for project family room and can't wait to show you the progress!