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!

Skimpy Curtain Disease

I don’t recall if I have mentioned this before, but this house is the my first foray into curtains. I’ve learned a lot through reading and observation since I first installed curtains a few years ago. One thing that I have learned about myself is that I have skimpy curtain disease. And I’m not the only one, the blogosphere is rife with this affliction. I’m not going to name names. I wouldn’t want to start some sort of drapery McCarthyism. 😉

One of the small home improvements I have been doing is to try and eradicate skimpy curtain disease. Here is my progress so far:

family room before & the late great Mr. Darcy

family room after

master bedroom before

master bedroom after

What do you think? I still have a ways to go, but I think I have skimpy curtain disease on the run. Do you have skimpy curtain disease? Do your friends and relatives? Does it drive you nuts?

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!

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.

Stick To Your Guns

The Room of No Purpose / The Land of Lost Clothes finally got painted yesterday. After much consternation and indecision on my part, and concern on the part of friends and loved ones – I did what I wanted. The walls are a very dark navy blue and the ceiling is a gray that reads as light blue. All the trim and new crown molding is white. I LOOOOOOOVE IT! I’m glad I went with my gut instinct, even though my gut has been wrong on paint color before. Hello! Remember the green bathroom catastrophe? So not good!

this room definitely needs a new name 🙂

Hopefully, I will have some better pictures later this week. I don’t have everything that I put on my Polyvore board purchased yet, but I do have some of it. Even the Wisteria chest that I thought was going t o be too expensive. I have the best luck in the scratch and dent section at Wisteria Outlet! Gotta go! People coming tomorrow and the house is still messy, of course. 😉

****Paint Colors****
Walls – Benjamin Moore Van Deusen Blue
Ceiling – Benjamin Moore Mt. Ranier Gray
Trim – custom matched at Ace Hardware

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. 🙂

The Room Of No Purpose

There is a room in my house that was known for many years as The Room Of No Purpose. I blogged about it for the first time here. It has gone through a couple of big cleanups since then. But in the last couple of months, my ability to stash has ramped up to epic levels. The room has now been renamed The Land of Lost Clothes. I’ve even theorized that when the door is closed, they complain to each other about their ill treatment and banishment. Sort of like the old, forgotten toys in Toy Story. 🙂

One thing that I have noticed about myself, is that if a room is furnished and decorated, it stays clean the vast majority of the time. To that end, I have decided to decorate and furnish The Land of Lost Clothes. Here is my plan:

new design for The Land of Lost Clothes 😉 by nichtuck on polyvore.com

Vernal Cusp Curtain, $120
Ikea Aspelund, $199
Camden Stripe Handwoven Rug | west elm, 67 SGD
Dual Drawer Dresser | Chests | Wisteria, $1,399
Possini Euro Pod 30″ Wide Ceiling Light Fixture | LampsPlus.com, $300
Sussex Rose Knob, $2.95
Skyline Furniture Arc Slipcover Headboard in Twill White | Wayfair, $236
Robert Abbey Natural Brass Pharmacy Desk Lamp | LampsPlus.com, $175

Confessions Of A Bad Blogger

I’ve had a lot going on lately. But I haven’t been blogging. I find this to be very odd, since I get annoyed when the blogs I read don’t have a new post nearly every day. Don’t you just love a double standard?!

Here’s what I’ve been up to in the last couple of days:
1. I’m considering this Dwell Studio fabric for curtains in the dining room:

2. I picked up this shelving unit at a consignment store last week. It won’t be staying in the dining room. I have some ideas for where to put it upstairs.

3. Mr. Bingley decided that today was the day to christen the living room. He threw up in two spots! At least it wasn’t on the area rug. 🙂

4. I finally styled the built in cabinets in the living room. I actually did it over a month ago, but since I’m a bad blogger…

5. I spent some time and money today making all the under sink cabinets in my full bathrooms look like this:

So that’s a little slice of what’s going on here. What’s going on with you?

PS I have absolutely no Halloween decorations up, or even fall stuff. I’m kind of a loser on that score. On the other hand, less crap to store the rest of the year.