Finally!

Finally refers to a lot of things. I am finally updating my blog after three weeks of silence. I am finally done with a project to show you. And I finally have a progress report (of sorts) on Buddy.

First, Buddy: Buddy has healed very nicely from his surgery. It turns out that he has not one, but two different types of cancer. The one on his elbow was misdiagnosed at first and was actually an osteosarcoma. They say they got it with narrow margins. He also had a bump on one of his back paws that I never mentioned before. Everyone thought it was a harmless fatty tumor. But it is a level 2 mast cell tumor. And they couldn’t get it all out. After much waiting and an appointment cancellation (not by me!), he finally has an appointment with a vet who is a radiologist oncologist. Who knew there was such a thing?!

I have finally completed (probably 🙂 a decor project. I’m going to post the pictures below. I apologize for my camera work and the fact that I really need a wide angle lense. My green guest room and pink bathroom are finally done. Complete with blue ceilings! Welcome to the fifties in my guest suite! 😉

Recent updates pictured above are the new window shades, pillow in the chair, shams on the bed and the bed skirt. The window fabric was found by me and comes from Lauren Liess Textiles. Beautiful fabric. The shams were made out of the former shower curtain from the attached bath. Bed skirt fabric and checked fabric on the decorative pillow selected by Mario and Bill of MBP Associates Interior Design Workroom Services. All installations done by Bill and Mario. And of course, MBP is the workroom used for all of the sewing. Great work, and I love working with them. They also did the new shower curtain for the attached bath, pictured below:

I must point out that I am not happy with the decorative pillow on the bed. It’s an old one that I’ve had forever. I ordered a new one yesterday, but it won’t be here for a while.

Source List
Paint:
bedroom walls: Valspar, Laura Ashley, Green Apple (3 or 4, I can’t remember)
Bathroom walls: Martha Stewart at HD, Magnolia Grandiflora
Bed & bath ceilings: Martha Stewart at HD, Love In The Mist ****I realized when everything was installed that I should have used MArtha Stewart Salt Glaze. I’m telling myself that I’m the only one who notices. We’ll see how long that lasts. ;)****
Trim: Benjamin Moore Cloud White

Wall decal: Leen the Graphics Queen
Bed: PB
Duvet cover: PB
Shams (former Shower curtain): PB
Red Lamp: PB
Pink lamp: Shades of Light
trunk: hand me down from a friend
White bedside table: Bassett
wicker chair and red table: Pier One
bookcase: Ikea Billy Bookcase
marble bookends: vintage from High Street Market

Before and after:

Hope everybody has a great rest of the week! Thanks so much for checking on Buddy.

My Precious

Hi! Sorry, I have been MIA. I don’t really have a good reason. I wanted to show everyone my new dining room chandelier. I am having a bit of an obsessive, Lord Of The Rings, love affair with it. I sit and stare at it all day long.

My precious from far.

My precious up close.

And since everyone likes a good before and after, here is the before:

Before my Precious.

Have a great weekend!

News

Hello! I hope everyone is having a blessed Lent so far. I’ve been back in town for a couple of days, but busy. Thanks so much to everyone who has been praying for my sister, Katie. Her surgery went very well. We initially thought the tumor was benign. We got the full pathology report today. It turns out that somewhere in the tumor they did find cancer cells. The good news is that they are called borderline. This apparently means that they usually don’t spread and they haven’t. They will have to keep a close watch over the next several years. But no chemo or radiation! So please keep praying for her healing and continued good health.

In house news, I am currently awaiting the first part of many projects I am using a workroom for. Right now they are doing 2 roman shades, 2 slip covers and 1 pillow. Can’t wait to see the results!

I also replaced a nightstand in the green guest room, and got a new lamp. It’s funny how sometimes you can look at the same room and day after day and not notice stuff that is off. That was the case with this situation. The original nightstand was purchased for our former house. And for some reason it has taken me over three years to see that it was too small in this house. ***Please ignore the horrible short curtains. Hopefully, they will be gone in a couple of months!***

Before

After

a closer look

The nightstand is from the Southport collection from Bassett Furniture. The lamp is from Shades of Light.

Friday Update

Buddy
Thanks everyone for your comments about Buddy Monster. Things have settled down a bit over the last couple of days. And there haven’t been any problems at all between Bingley and Buddy.

Nap time!

Buddy is still cracking us up with his craziness. And you can tell that Mr. Bingley is like “What the heck is the matter with that thing?”! Last night after we had gone to bed, Buddy started howling and crying. When the husband went downstairs to see what the deal was, he found Mr. Bingley peeking around the doorway of the room where he sleeps, looking very perturbed. 🙂 Also yesterday, quite by accident, I found where several toys had disappeared to. The Buddy Monster had buried them in the garden!

House Suff
I had some new window treatments installed yesterday in the master bedroom and in the navy blue room. They replace white faux wood blinds that are original to the house (1995). Also, I got the very nice gift of two new lamp shades from Julia Sugarbaker. They look great on my old black candlestick lamps. She tried to pass those shades on to me a couple of months ago and I was sure I didn’t have any use for them. When I finally realized they might work on those lamps, she brought them over within 5 minutes. Thanks, Julia!

this was the best "before" photo I could find to show the old blinds and lamp shades

at some point the walls will be painted a gray and the curtains will be white

Same as the shades in the master. Still need art, rug, etc...

Fashion Advice
So I’m wondering how many people have the same feelings and issues that I have about this. I guess I am also wondering if I am being a whiny biatch (which is a definite possibility). There are lots of fashion blogs on the internet. I check a few of them regularly, and I have been able to glean a few useful and helpful tips from them. But I find myself getting really irritated with the ones who are helping others dress. I stopped reading one almost entirely because I realized that she has issues with seeing body types other than her own. For instance, she had a client of hers with a large chest buy a blouse with horizontal stripes. Seriously? I don’t have a large chest, but even I know that 99.9 times out of 100, that is not going to be flattering. This week I bought an ebook that is supposed to simplify dressing. While the book does have some good tips and advice, I found myself becoming extremely annoyed. Possibly, irrationally so. This skinny author seems to be under the impression that black skinny jeans, as long as you find the correct fit are universally flattering and a must have. This makes me want to take one of my short, stocky legs, and beat her with it! I’m kidding – sort of. And BTW, I’m not PMSing. 🙂 And while she does mention that we shouldn’t get hung up on her particular choices of key pieces, it was very hard not to notice that she gravitates towards many things that are not universally flattering: cropped pants, horizontal stripes, mid length skirts. So I guess the question is: Am I just being a jealous chick who is mad that I can’t wear that stuff, or do I have a legitimate beef with these advice givers? I guess I thought the examples in a book would trend towards things that are wearable for more people. Of course, there is always the standard answer, I don’t need to take their advice if I don’t like it. And that is completely true. Maybe I need to quit complaining, and put together outfits for short, chunky girls. What say you?

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Pillows and lamps and mirrors, oh my!

I have a little bit of progress to show on the navy blue room. I need to come up with a better name. It was so much more fun when I could call it “the room of no purpose”!

Here is what it looked when we first got done painting:

Here is what it looked like for our Thanksgiving guests:

And here is how it looks today:

The lamps are from The Company Store, the mirror is the one we removed from our entryway, and the wonderful Holly made the pillows from an extra curtain panel. I didn’t take a picture of the windows because the panels are currently down and being shortened. I more artwork to get framed and I still need to get a rug and some more furniture for the wall opposite the bed.

Just in case you have lost count, here is the vast array of metals I have mixed in this room: shiny brass door knobs, aged brass mirror and dresser handles, matte silver map frame, shiny chrome on the ceiling light, and oil rubbed bronze on the curtain rod. I don’t know if I can fit anymore in, and I probably shouldn’t try. 🙂 Happy Monday!

PS I am going to eventually shrink the bed skirts a bit, so they will not look as sloppy as they do right now.

Better But Not Quite There Yet

I (meaning we) got enough of the the new room loaded in for three of my nieces to sleep there over the Thanksgiving holiday. It’s not finished. It still needs lamps, a rug, shades for the windows, and possibly an armoire. I also plan on having a couple of throw pillows made for the bed and to recover an existing bench I own. The most annoying thing is that I have to have the curtains shortened! Ahhhh! I can’t figure out if I just ordered the wrong ones or if I forgot to account for the new crown molding when I measured. I’m very seriously annoyed with myself about that. Oh well, here’s a peak at it so far:

from the hallway

I love how the map turned out!

need artwork and lamps and more pillows. Always more pillows!

this wall will definitely change

So, that’s what I have so far. I hope it doesn’t take me too long to finish. I don’t want it to be added to my never ending list of projects that aren’t done.

A Little Early Holiday Decor

I got some Christmas pillows yesterday from a local shop. I was really excited to order them because my entryway can’t handle too much red, due to all the blue and green in the painting.

the usual look

Christmas look

I really like them. The husband was not so impressed. But I have explained before that it’s difficult to take his opinions to heart, since they are always tempered with his cheapness. 😉 Check out ShopTen 25 for more great accessories.

Back To The Blue Room

Or more precisely, the blue bathroom. I’ll get to that in a minute. It has been nearly a year since I have blogged about these two rooms. The progress is ridiculously slow. One of the windows had a huge crack and I had that fixed. I bought new curtains from IKEA for this room months ago, but never bought the correct curtain rod to hang them. The blinds on the windows are actually broken and need to be replaced. I have fabric to have roman blinds made, but have failed to pull the trigger. This is becoming a theme with me…

Here is the before picture of the bathroom. It has looked like this for three years:
Those huge, blue, clown like knobs have always driven me nuts. This week I finally replaced them with black glass knobs. So much better!

I purchased the knobs from D. Lawless Hardware. I thought their prices were good and their shipping was quick. This is my first time using them and I was impressed. I was able to purchase for very cheap from their site, the type of screws that go into the knob instead of sticking out the back. So, if you have knobs from places like Anthro. where the screw is sticking out into your drawer or cabinet, this could be the answer.

What do you think? I feels as if it’s a vast improvement and I can’t believe it took me three years. As for that bathroom in general – it has issues. But for now, new hardware is all it gets. 🙂

Istanbul Or Constantinople?

I’m talking about ottomans, of course. 😉 I finally got two ottomans that I think will work under the white lacquer console table. Here is a before:

before the ottoman invasion

I got these ottomans knowing that they would look okay, but that I would probably want to have covers made for them. The husband says he thinks I should leave them as is. But his opinion is always suspect, because he’s always worried that whatever scheme I have in mind is going to cost too much money. So I want to know what you think.

Istanbul:

Or Constantinople:

Since I already bought the fabric, I obviously think the latter. But I want your honest opinion, so feel free to disagree with me. Hope everyone has a great week and hope that song isn’t stuck in your head for too long.

Fireplace Tuesday

So I decided to ditch Fat Tuesday this week, because my new fireplace screen came yesterday. I love it. I do wish that the granite tile on the fireplace had a lot less movement in it. And I also wish the grout was black instead of white. I actually didn’t realize how much it bugged me until I got the screen. At least the grout is easier to change than the tile. So that may go on my project list. Don’t tell the husband!

Fireplace before

I got the screen from Grandin Road. You can find it here. I’ve been looking for a screen for almost two years. I’m pretty happy with the price. It’s solid and heavy, not cheapy steel tubing. By the way, see that tall white vase on the mantle? That’s by Polly George. If anyone knows where I can buy her china in the U.S., please share! I’m a big fan and would like a couple more pieces.

Happy Tuesday, everyone! And may the ragweed not be as plentiful where you are, as it is here.