It isn't much, but there is one tiny corner of my chaotic, in-the-middle-of-remodeling-prior-to-moving-in house that is just the way I want it to be! Hooray! Except, that is, for the lack of soft grey paint in the corner there, which I didn't notice until now. Ah well. I'm not going to bother cutting in everything until the whole room is ready to paint.
This will give you a sneak peek into the new color scheme of the main rooms of our new house = oh, how I love the combination of aqua, red, and grey, with lots of silver accents!
That quilt in the middle there (this was the kids' playroom in our old house) was the inspiration for my new color scheme.
Anyway, I love this little vignette at the back of the closet we just finished (a la contractors). It faces the back door and looks into the kitchen breakfast area, reflecting lots of light and color into the back of the house.
The mirror is one of the many things that got damaged in our move - the corners were all smashed up. I was able to fix it and repaint it, thank goodness. The mirror frame used to be black, but I painted it white and then did a series of glazes (1 coat light silver, 1 coat dark silvery grey....both were little pre-mixed bottles of Martha Stewart paint available at Home Depot). I love how it turned out! Much better than plain black.
You'll probably recognize my awesome red faux poppies...they've been cheering my house for the past 4 homes we've lived in. The horse head statue is a new bargain acquisition, thanks to Marshalls. I didn't like the way the bottom of the base was designed, so I covered it up with some wide grosgrain ribbon...the perfect little polkadot flair, n'est pas?
Here is the reason I'm finally blogging again....I love my kids more than anything, but Holy Macaroni I'm glad school has finally started!! This has been one of the most difficult summers ever for all of us - the kids were SOOO bored so I pretty much gave up trying to work on the house and spent much of my time entertaining/playing referee/driving to the local pool. We're ALL breathing a sigh of relief that school has begun.
It's also quite exciting to see a picture of the two of them actually hugging eachother and smiling...an important moment to document, without a doubt (wink).
Even my little Hazel Basil is off to school this year...PreK, that is, since the cutoff here in NC is just before her birthday. I'm laughing at myself because, after 10 years of secretly looking forward to having all my kids in school so I could have more free time during the day to work, I'm all bittersweet and sniffy about my baby girl going off to school fulltime. Hazel has been my nearly constant companion for almost 5 years now, and I miss her snuggles and adorable smile (Although not the whining. I don't miss the whining at all). My friends who have "been there, done that" assure me that the sadness is short-lived, however, and I'll quickly recover. :-)
So this past week has been spent cleaning, decorating, working outside, and doing lots of little projects like the ones you see started in above photos (more on those later), plus I'm almost finished with our office - but that post will have to wait for another day.
I also need to post about the amazing Marcie, who worked tirelessly to make (and inspire her friends to make) TONS of bags for the Bulgarian Orphans! She doesn't live too far from us, so she and her 2 sweet sons (they helped put all the drawstrings in) delivered the huge box of nearly 100 bags earlier in the summer. At about the same time I received a box of beautifully sewn bags from Manuela (thank you!!) so we have lots of gorgeous bags to send off the the orphans. That's on my list of things to do this week. But I'll post about that later too.
Right now I've got to finish spreading drywall mud on the base of the dining room walls...I'm eliminating the annoyingly distracting texture of the sheetrock and, when it's all smooth, will cut trim to create faux paneling/wainscoting below the chair rail. Not the most excitingly fun project, but it'll look great when it's done! I'm REALLY looking forward to having my dining room put together.
Until another day, then....and I promise I won't wait another month before I post again. You probably thought I'd died or, more likely, went completely insane due to the traumatic upheaval of everything these past few months. Which, actually, is not that far from the truth. But I'm mostly recupurated now. Catch ya'll later - now that I'm in the south I can talk like that, right? :-)
Glad to have you back! Love the little spot you've carved out. Gorgeous.
Posted by: Emilie | August 31, 2012 at 05:32 PM
Ah, yes, I know that back-to-school feeling quite well, although I have missed them during the day this week! Funny how that works...
Never heard of drywall mud - I have annoying textured walls and have wondered if there's a way to smooth them out without too much effort on my part. Do tell!
Posted by: Peggy | August 31, 2012 at 09:34 PM
I LOVE the color scheme it is SOOO beautiful and as always you are so good at interior design...LOVE IT!!
Aidan starts back on Tuesday and I am actually sad because we have had a great summer and I like the freedom of not having a schedule but I am weird like that :)
I LOVE the picture of Miss Hazel and cannot believe she is off to school!!
Posted by: Wendi Lane | September 02, 2012 at 06:02 PM
Oh, man! I posted a comment yesterday but I must have missed a step--Here goes again. I love the silver mirror! I've always loved shades of grey and silver, so good job. And are you guys living somewhere else or do you mean you haven't fully unpacked yet?
And congratulations on surviving your latest bout of insanity. Summer was my latest bout. Rosalie goes to kindergarten this year, but only half day. So the bitter-sweet is only half strength.
Posted by: Edith Songer | September 02, 2012 at 06:53 PM
Hey Edith! Thanks for all your comments...especially since you had to write them twice! No, we're not living elsewhere, I just haven't been able to move in yet because of pending remodeling jobs like replacing flooring in the master bedroom and building a room above the 20' high ceiling in the great room so I can have a studio space. Just little things like that. :-)
I expected to get SOOO much done with the kids all in school, but so far that hasn't quite happened....
Posted by: Shelley | September 05, 2012 at 07:56 PM
Wendi, thanks so much! I'm glad you had a good summer with Aidan - I bet your kids have grown so much since I last saw them! One of these days I need to drive north and see you guys!
Emilie, thanks for the luv - I sure miss you too!
Peggy, the real name for the mud is Joint Compound, and it's sold where they sell tools for doing drywall over in the lumber section of hardware stores. I have found the lightweight kind to work best...when I do a post on my dining room I'll talk about it in more detail.
Posted by: Shelley | September 05, 2012 at 08:01 PM
Hiya! Did you somehow execute all the settings of this website by yourself or you got professional help?
Posted by: TechnologyIsFuture | December 17, 2012 at 03:18 AM