My own hallway full monty.

Well.  Nice little neglected blog.  My bad...

In other news, I put together a photo wall!

Thanks to Young House Love, I got all excited to put together my own little hallway.  My problem?  Where to put said hallway.

I could have put it in the basement, but the basement doesn't get a whole lot of face time when people come here.  Plus, it's kinda dark and, you know, in the basement.  Oh, and the little matter of the fact that the hallway leads to the utility room.  Also known as the Cat Room - that's where we keep the cat boxes.  Sooooo...maybe not exactly where I want to direct traffic.  :)  So, upstairs it went.  That hallway is a lot smaller and tighter, but it's a good place to pop a bunch of pictures and other fun items.

So, there you have it.  Now, some pics.

Here's the whole thing laid out on the hall floor.  Note the glorious tiles in the doorway.  Courtesy of the wonderdog when he was a pup.  Stupid wonderdog.

Here's another angle of it.  Not all the frames have the final pics in them.  Can you guess which ones?  :)

Who doesn't like a good progress shot?  I know I do.

Aaaaaaaand another.

And a couple of gratuitous "all done" shots!

Just one little story - these squirrels were painted on our car when we were married.  Back in the day, hubby's roommate named a squirrel that lived in their attic after him.  No, I don't know why.  All I know is that the little car paintings are stinkin' cute.  PS - those are hands, not boobs...

Wait, what's that?  Some TP art?!  Yeah.  You know it.  Also, note the mess in the bedroom behind it all.  This would be the carnage of pulling out all the picture frames and piling everything onto the bed while I find the right frames and the right places for them all.

Oh, and so the other side of the hall doesn't feel lonely, here's what that side looks like.  Not sure that I'll ever actually put anything on those walls other than the CB2 bud vases that are on there right now.  The thermostat and all that on the other side really distracts...

So, there you have it!  My own little version of the picture hallway I someday hope to have - like the Petersiks'.  Someday.

Up next:  finding the right bathroom mirror?

I like this.

Found it in the Real Simple mag for this month.  Just a one-page ad that caught my attention.

Excuse the slight fuzziness - it was a small pic.

There's just something about the casual "here's some stuff that I like" feeling of the two boards and the three hanging pics.  I like the rustic look of the wall behind it - very beach cottage.  That's not something that normally catches my eye, but I like it here.  I've been sort of thinking about how I can work in a wooden wall into our house.  One of my fave bloggers, Katie from Bower Power put a wood wall in her little boy's nursury, and I love it.  The rustic, masculine feel of it is just wonderful.  There's something comforting about the simplicity and beauty of it.

I like the idea of some kind of a wall like that somewhere in mi casa.  Probably not this casa, but maybe in the "forever home" of the future?

I like that both of the pics have this great rustic wall.  TOTALLY different kinds of rustic walls, but both really comfortable.  There's something about both of them that make me want to wear a lot of white linen and read books in the sunshine and breeze.  Kind of like living within an allergy medicine commercial.

That's about it.  Just a little sumpn' sumpn' that caught my eye.  Carry on.




Images from ballarddesigns.com and bowerpowerblog.com.

Guess what I love?!

CB2.  LOVE.

I've purchased a few things from there (see also:  totally awesome sculpture), and gotten a few items as gifts (thanks family!).  I just love that it's so modern and interesting, while still being pretty affordable.  Here are some things I'm digging from them right now.

It's no secret that I'm in love with acrylic items.  I love, love, love them.  I couldn't possibly tell you why - I just really like how they don't impede on the visual space.  That whole see-through thing is good for that.  In this table, I like the legs.  They're unique and interesting.  GRANTED, I'd love the whole thing a little more if it were a pedestal that could fit, say, 8 people, but I'd take this if someone gave it to me.
I'm also digging the picture frames.  Especially that long one.  Guess what I'll be getting?  Yeah, a couple of those.  Now, where to put them...

And then there's this little number.

I mean, come on.  How cheeky and adorable.  PLUS, it's in yellow.  I love the yellow lately.  I want to use as much of it as I possibly can in the house - especially because the walls are gray.  My husband and my sister will not agree with me, but yellow and gray just look GOOD together.  I'll have to find a place on my floating shelves for a couple of these to live.  Perhaps it would look good living on that acrylic table?

I just love this whole bedroom.  In the CB2 catalog, there's a lot more to the picture.  A whole sitting area with fantastic lime green chairs - you can just see a snippet of them on the left.  Things I dig about this pic:  the mirrored headboard/bed art, the great rug, the subtle wall color (it's more gray in the catalog), the super-mod furniture, and the comforter.  I kind of lust after the comforter.  Alas, we have four furry animals that would have that looking like butt in no time flat.  Bummer.  Pretty to look at, though!

That's just a small snippet of what I'm seeing in the CB2 catalog that I'm liking.  Once I get farther than 27 pages in, maybe I'll come back with some more.  :)


All images from CB2.com

Looky there!

Check it.  New blog background.  I know you love it.  Who doesn't love pinks and salmons?

Enjoy!

More crafts!

Katie Bower from the Bower Power blog had a little posting about making a cone tree (that's for tree #2 of 3, BTW).  In the little blog, she mentioned that the process she used for making this cone tree could be used to make a "capiz" lamps.  Then, lo and behold, on HGTV's website, I was looking around for a little decoration inspiration, and stumbled across a picture of a capiz chandelier.  Inspiration has struck.  I'm going to figure out how to make this...

...using wax paper and a light-making kit.  In Katie's blog (yes, we're on a first-name basis, much like I am with YHL's Sherry and John...), she tells how to take three sheets of wax paper and iron them together to create a similar texture to capiz.  Simply cut out the circles and attach together with a tone of fishing wire.  Naturally, this is gonna have to be a "get back to you on that one" kind of a craft, because I JUST thought of it.  I'm not even certain where I would put this baby, either.  Perhaps in our bedroom?  Over what I want to someday have as the reading area?  Maybe not as an *actual* light (read:  nothing electric), and hang it over our jacuzzi tub thingy?  Maybe in the living room?  So very many possibilities.  Can't wait to get started!!

New pretty things to look at!

SO.  It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of John and Sherry P on younghouselove.com.  LOVE those kids (PS - they have a new house to prettify!!  Yippee!!!!!).  Sometimes, I peruse their "Link Love" section.  One of those times, I discovered a little blog called Bower Power.  Katie B is a serious crafter.  (And stinkin' adorable to boot.)  She's got me all kinds of excited for craft-makin'.

One craft in particular is this interesting little number about cone tree decorations.  Yeah, I know - it's a little late (or early), but I can totally think about Christmas 2011 in February.  Totally.

Back in early January, we went to the Home Depot and zipped through the Christmas clearance area.  I found three bags of HEAVILY-scented pine cones.  What don't I have in my cone tree collection?  One made out of pine cones.  So, I decided to take a Miller Lite case (classy, I know!) and turn it into a cone tree using pine cones.

Um, I haven't actually finished it yet, so I'm going to have to keep you updated on this one.  For now, click on that link and look at the three trees that Katie B made for this Christmas (you can click the links within the one page to get to the other two.).

Also, I stumbled upon another blogger's post about making art out of TOILET PAPER ROLLS.  Love it.  Using something that just gets pitched or recycled and turning it into a craft or neat piece of art is great.  Again, my little craft is unfinished, but I can't wait to do it.  I'm making the first one for my seester.  I haven't quite decided what formation the little sucker will take on, but I'm getting escited.  Stay tuned!!

Some bedroom ideas

I've been thinking a lot lately about my bedroom.  I'm kinda tired of it being a cluttered and unfinished space.  It really should have been the first room that we finished, rather than the last, as it seems like it will be.  The upstairs guest room is done.  The dining room is awfully close to complete.  The living room's right there with it.  Our kitchen is looking pretty good.  Now that the family room is painted, it won't be long till it's decorated just like we want it to be.  MOST of the rooms in Casa PV are looking good or on their way to being complete.  What's missing here?  Our bedroom.  (and three bathrooms, a garage, utility room, and another bedroom...but who's counting????)

I finally gave Husband Mine an ultimatum over Christmas (please excuse the tardiness of this post...):  Bed must be finished by our anniversary, or I buy one.

You see, he decided several years ago that he wanted to take up furniture making as a hobby.  As in, "I want to build bookcases and beds and end tables and coffee tables."  He has been saying since the day we bought our mattress (which was delivered the week we moved into the house 2+ years ago) that he wants to build the bed.  Which he started last spring.  And then abandoned because he didn't like how heavy it was.  So, he decided to start anew.  Two years after we moved in, I still find myself sleeping on a mattress on the floor.  Which really doesn't help with the whole "look how finished our bedroom is" thing.  Hence the ultimatum.

And let me tell you, folks.  I've been saving my pennies.  It's not that I don't have faith in him.  I really want to.  It's more that I'm a realist when I come to that man.  He is a perfectionist, so he has a tendancy to stop doing something if it's not perfect.  Like our bed in round 1 for example.

Since I'm a visual person, and I just believe everyone is exactly like me, here are some pics to give you a sense of what the general idea of the bed is.  Our "inspiration pieces" if you will.

We started with this great bed from West Elm:

We loved everything about it but the price.  Oucheroo.  So, we took the idea of the storage bed (note the drawers on the bottom), and kind of combined it with this great headboard from Ikea:

I know, the headboard looks a little goofy, but you have to imagine it behind a solid headboard.  Those shelves are pull-out.  They stay hidden in a box-like headboard...kinda like this one, also from Ikea:



It's okay to ooohhh and aaahhh over my fancy photo-editing skilz (note red arrow).

SO, combine the two pictures, and you have a basic idea of what the finished product is rumored to supposed look like.  I see that bed in my mind's eye, and imagine the sweet lamps we just got (hello, Home Goods score!) perched on top of the headboard, a slim bench in the same color at the foot of the bed...then come the bookshelves in the corner and the small chair in front of them...the floating shelf on the wall to the left of the bed...I've got it all planned out.

All I need is a bed to get it started...