A Mini Makeover . . .

Remember my pitiful laundry “hallway”? At one time the walls were white.  Then they were yellow.  Now they are Restoration Hardware’s Silver Sage, which is a color for the permanent record books.  I’ve posted about my hallway before here.

I am constantly trying to figure out ways to make this sliver of real estate more usable and more attractive, since it is actually the most used non-room in our house. 

Recently it went from looking like this:

To looking like this:

 

Not a huge change, I know, but a change that got all the paper work off of my fridge with the addition of ducting sheet metal cut to fit the area above the coat hooks.  The air conditioning warehouse I got my sheet metal from even folded the ends so I wouldn’t cut myself. The entire wall of sheet metal was only $25 – a steal of a deal for a family magnet board!

The bottom of the wall got a board and batten treatment for a fresh look. A few of you asked what board and batten is.  Our version of this classic molding treatment {which we’ve also applied to the basement walls} involved cutting one and half inch pre-primed boards to size and using a nail gun to attach them to the wall at measured intervals.  Caulk was applied to all seams and a generous coat of white semi-gloss paint covered both wall and boards to make them look like one complete unit.

Here are my ‘battens’ before painting:

And here they are after:

 

Notice I also painted the quarter round molding {which was brown before} at the base of the floor to give my wimpy floorboards some added heft.  In a few weeks when I show you the new basement, I’ll explain how we were able to do this treatment without removing a single baseboard.

I am in love with the look of board and batten.  But I must warn, it is a multi-step process and not for the impatient!  Measure, cut, level, nail, wood filler, sand, caulk, paint, paint, paint – it has taken me weeks to finish it up.  The effect is worth it!

Stay tuned  - tomorrow I have a wonderful before and after that a friend is going to let me share with you.  It is divine!

PS.  Both the Hubby and I want to paint the door leading out to the garage.  What say you?  We’re thinking about grey.

The Big Event . . .

was a surprise 40th Birthday Party for a great gal named Kate and 100 of her closest friends.  I was asked to head up the decor by taking an already fabulous wrap around porch in a gorgeous natural setting, and turning up the wow factor to make the fantastic forty year old feel really special – all while maintaining the surprise factor by doing the install in a 5 hour time period on the day of the party.  YOWZA!!
Here’s how I {and by I, I totally mean WE because I had lots of help from some really dedicated family and friends} accomplished the goal {warning, long post}:
First, to give the beautiful tongue and groove plank ceilings some adornment, we made 150 of these tissue paper pom poms following the tutorial found here. 
This was the single biggest project for the party and included a bunch of crazy ladies staying up very late at night making inappropriate jokes and one devoted Hubby on a ladder for four hours hanging “fluff” from fishing wire.  I’m pretty sure everyone thought I was crazy to implement this particular idea.  I know I thought I was crazy! But the effect it had was breathtaking!  A slight breeze the night of the party made the ceiling come alive with texture and movement and the pom poms looked as if they were floating because you couldn’t see the fishing wire. It was really lovely!

Here’s another gratuitous pom pom shot.  I spy a Queen! Thanks for helping out momma.  You are the source of my skills.  Love ya!Next, I worked on some center pieces for the eight round tables where guests would be sitting.  Brian {Kate’s husband} had mentioned that her favorite flowers are roses.  I priced out fresh flowers and just could not bring myself to spend that much of my budget on something that would eventually die and get tossed in the trash.  Brian and Kate are in the process of putting in an amazing pool behind their house so  I suggested we use some ground cover rose bushes as centerpieces that he could plant by the pool for Kate afterwards, giving her a reminder of her surprise party for years to come.  I wrapped each plant in tulle and brown burlap, tied it off with some coordinating ribbon in the party’s colors and gave each centerpiece a metal butterfly and a skewered cardstock circle with a fun fact about Kate.   
Now that the table tops were covered {centerpiece, lime green cloths and votive candles} I wanted something to fill the space between the vaulted ceiling with all it’s pom poms and the table surface.  Enter the thousands of cardstock circles I’ve been cutting for weeks:

Each table had a  circle garland ‘chandelier’ hanging above it. I tied the garland to a wire wreath frame and the hubby used more clear fishing wire to hang these.  Some of the circles were embossed with a gold 40 for some added shimmer and shine, cuz that’s how I roll {read: crazy and more crazy}.
When I do a party, I am all about some personal touches.  For Kate’s party, the personal came in the form of two specific ideas:

A custom made memo board where guests could leave birthday wishes for Kate and a little take-away box for each guest filled with several varieties of Kate’s favorite candies.

The memo board was made from the fabric that was my inspiration for the party’s color palette.  The Queen helped me gussy up this area with candles, rocks from the yard, fresh flower arrangements {by me} and a large letter K that I found at JoAnn’s and improved with some paint and paper flowers. I hand stamped the cards for guests to leave messages on and placed them in a $1.00 tin from my beloved Target.
For the take-away boxes, I designed a fun label and my crazy family helped me stuff and tied each box with the coolest lime green/white twine from Divine Twine.  Wondering what was inside?  An assortment of White chocolate Reese’s cups, Twix bars, chocolate truffles and vanilla Tootsie Rolls. Uh, can you say YUM?
When guests first came up the stairs onto the porch, they were greeted by two buffet tables laden with food from three of Kate’s favorite restaurants.  And in the center of the tables sat a large urn with the tree branch I lovingly glued hundreds of silk flowers to in an effort to give it that just-bloomed spring look.  On the branches hung various pictures from Kate’s life.

The figurative {and literal} icing on the cake of this party was a custom made birthday cake.  While I can take absolutely zero credit for the making of the cake, I did consult with its creator on colors, textures and overall design.  And man, did Nancy ever rock my world with her finished product, which was topped by one last tissue flower of my making:
 
Nancy copied pieces of the cardstock I used for the garland onto edible paper which she used to wrap the cake.  And I should probably mention that the cake tasted even better than it looked.  If that’s even possible.
I had a really great time putting this party together for Kate and watching the ideas in my head come together in reality.  I learned a lot, and specifically that I am nowhere near ready to do this on a regular basis, despite receiving several requests for future work while at the party. It took a lot of time away from my family. I had a lot of help from friends and family to pull it off. Without them I would have sunk faster than a rock in water. You know who you are – thank you a million times over. I just know I couldn’t exist on this kind of stress constantly. So I am semi-retired for now.

Here’s a parting shot of the party as I was pulling away in my car to go home to my Hubby:
If you’re curious to see what happened at my house while I was at the party, head on over to my photo blog by clicking on that Dragonfly in the right hand sidebar - believe me, it's worth a click! 

Random Musings: Big Event Edition . . .

This is me and my wrinkly forehead feeling nervous because today is the big day!  There are some hints in this picture.  One involves thousands of little circles.  The other does not involve the big event, but doesn invlove some bare walls and the removal of furniture.

Hello pièce de résistance!  You can't see it now, but this branch, my hot glue gun and hundreds of tiny silk flowers are going to be a show stopper tonight.  And thank you mother nature for lending me a limb. {no trees were harmed for this photo.  The limb was already broken off a tree.}

All I can say is ROSES, baby!  And tangerine, hot pink and green are happy together.  You should try it sometime.  I recommend starting with a scoop of rainbow sherbet {or sherbert if you're like the Hubby}.

When you know you've arrived as a party planner:  you're pulling a Hanz and Franz, trying to make rose bushes bloom with artificial heat. This toilet is now suffering from delusions of grandeur. Heaven help me!

The full wrap up with big event details on Monday!  Until then, do me a little favor and pray for lots of happy guests, no rain and specifically NO WIND!  Thanks!

The Devil Made Me Do It . . .

In case you aren’t aware, paint is the devil.  Not a believer?  Let me illustrate:

• Try deciding on a color based on a tiny 1 X 2 inch square sample.  Impossible.
• Recognize that even if your picking a blue, it WILL have red or green undertones that are almost undetectable to the human eye.
• Pick a color and watch it turn into three completely different colors depending on the time of day or light in any given room.
• Buy one $3 sample jar after another until your room is painted in multi-colored polka dots – none of which are “the” color.
• Get an entire room painted and HATE the color.  Paint it back to white.

Though I feel somewhat confident in my decorating choices, paint is the one element that haunts me!  And believe me, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree . . . just ask the Queen what color she’s picked for her walls.

I am currently staring at a page filled with 236 different shades of blue.  One of the colors on the page is THE COLOR for the basement. 

When it’s all said and done, I think I’ll put together a little book of all the colors that work time and time again {hello Restoration Hardware’s Silver Sage} and those that are absolutely to be avoided.

How about you?  Do you dance with the devil?  {and I’m strictly talkin’ paint here, people.}

An Introduction . . .

Hello dear blog readers. Meet my basement. Basement, meet my beloved blog readers.

I'm sorry it's taken me three years to properly introduce you, but I've been a little hesitant. My basement is dark - don't let these pictures fool you. My basement is musty smelling, or so says the Queen. My basement is a constant mess of arts and crafts supplies, Wii remotes and tiny legos that embed themselves into the bottom of my feet. My basement has an ironing board and pile of wrinkled shirts as year round decor. I think what I'm trying to say is that my basement is pretty much my secret shame.

But that is all about to change, because I've had an epiphany. Oh, how the Hubby hates it when I have epiphanies!

It all started with a little idea I like to call The Seven Year Deadline. When we moved here six years and eleven months ago, the Hubby made this very declarative statement: "We'll live here for seven years and then reassess." Upon reassessing, we both agreed that we love it here and don't see ourselves moving any time soon.  His job is great, the schools are amazing, we love our church congregation, we have amazing neighbors and friends and we live near family.  Pretty sweet deal, right?

But just shy of seven years in our unique {read: quirky} house and I am itching.  Itching for change.  Itching to mix things up a little.  Our family has grown, but the house has not.  It is time to make more effective use of our space and spruce up the things we've lived with and worn down over the past seven years.
 
The reality is that we spend the majority of our time in two places in the house - the kitchen/family room area and the basement.  The kitchen/family room area, which I've photographed extensively on the blog, is lovely.  The basement - not so much.

So, Phase I of the Lee Family basement redesign has begun.  It started with the table in the photos.  It was a nasty orange stained piece of junk that I found at Salvation Army for $20.  It has lived in our garage for almost three years.  I finally channeled all of my post partum horomones into sprucing it up and now the table that nobody liked has found a home in what is going to become my new creative space.  A place where I can craft, write, photograph and enjoy.

The next big change will be taking the large den and playroom areas from a boring sea of beige, tan and cream to a fresh palette of blues and whites with brown accents.  And there will be molding and artwork and some great Ikea furniture thrown in the mix. And I may even repurpose a dresser and invest in some chalkboard paint to cover a large portion of wall space if I feel like it.  Ooohhh, I definitely feel like it.

The buzzing of my brain in this decorative direction is making me feel really happy - like my old pre-baby self again.  I can't wait to see how this turns out in reality, because in my brain it is fan-freaking-tastic!

I'll try to document as much as I can here on the ol' blog.  Won't you come along for the ride?

Ps.  How is half of April already over?  Give away details next week!

On My Nightstand . . .

Ever wonder what I see first thing when I roll over in the morning? If I roll to the right I'm staring at a really cute, freckly Hubby {and usually a bald little Ollie who's having a morning snug}. But when I roll to the left I see this:

It's my current reading stack.  I'd like to say it eventually gets smaller, but it doesn't. I keep adding books to the bottom of the pile. I'm pretty committed to reading from the top down and I try to read at least two chapters a night, unless I get completely obsessed with a book which usually results in me reading until 2:30 in the morning and waking up with a book hangover.  Do you have any books I need to add to my pile?

Here's the rest of my morning greeting brigade:  a pacifier, a marking pencil, some flashcards I've been showing Ollie, a Sunday School manual, a delicious Anthropologie candle, some pretty-to-look-at books and porcelain and a nice fat $50 bill just waiting to be spent on some spring clothes.

What about you?  Go peek at your nightstand and tell me what greets you this morning!

Accessorized . . .

I added this glass glitter garland to my boring Ikea kitchen chandelier for the holidays. Believe me, the chandalier was oh, so grateful. Now instead of being plain Jane, she's like a fine lady in a fancy necklace.

All the other holiday decor has been put away, but for some reason, I can't seem to bring myself to remove the sparkle from this one spot. I think I might just revolt and leave it up until the Hubby makes a comment. He may not even notice since we're busy doing that thing we do at the beginning of the New Year - you know, dejunk every room, nook and cranny in the house for a fresh start.

Do you do this in January too? Get all crazy with the organizing? My new litmus test for should it stay or should it go is to ask the following two questions: Do I use it? Do I love it? If the answer is no to both, then it's outta here. If the answer is yes to either, then I clean it up and put it in it's proper place.

And so, since the answer is Yes, I sure do love my glass glitter garland on the chandalier, it stays! Happy day! Now on to the next room...

ps. I was so encouraged by all the comments yesterday about family mattering most. Please, if you haven't commented yet, go do it now so you can be entered in the January giveaway!

Easy. Peasy. Lemon Squeezey. . .

Remember back in the 90's when fake ivy in that dead space atop the kitchen cupboards was totally acceptable? Well, those days are over. Don't feel bad if you still have ivy there. But do stop reading this blog and take it down right now because I've got the perfect use for it! And it won't even matter if it gets dusty. In fact, that will make it even better!

I took some ivy that had been sitting in my basement stash of faux greenery {always on hand in case I'm in a pinch . . . I've even used some on a cake before in the middle of winter to make it look purty} and hauled it out back where it met its fate in a can of black spray paint. Now I've got some great blackery {ha ha, get it? it's a pun on GREENery} to stick in my urn for Halloween.



It looks great in the dining room with the plates and the spiders and this guy who was a steal at Michaels for only $6.99, which is surprising, since it's from the Martha Stewart line. He'll be around for years and is so versatile! Who doesn't love a versatile skeleton? Maybe next year I'll have him coming out of a kitchen cupboard or on the mantle. Or maybe I'll scare the poop out of one of my kids by putting it in their room while they sleep. Oh, yes, I can see this is going to be very, very good.



Everyone who knows me, knows that I hate spiders. Hate them. Hate. Them. But I am in love with these plastic spiders that came in a package of 40 from Wal-mart for $2.99. I have used the entire lot of them all over the house. I think they are solely responsible for keeping the real spiders away, so I've decided to leave them up year round. Not really, but they do make me smile - especially when they're following one another up a wall or down a fireplace like a happy spider family {think Harry Potter}.

My spiders are attached to surfaces using Joe's Sticky Stuff.
It was a gift from a sister-in-law and I love, love, love it for securing spiders or picture frames to any wall or surface! Handy.

One day Ollie and I took a little walk with the stroller and some hand held garden pruners. We were on the hunt for spooky branches in our neighborhood's wooded area. Once I found a good branch, I brought it home, spray painted it black and put it in a bucket filled with white beans. Our "Halloween Tree" is decorated with little spooky ornaments and black and white ribbon. You could easily enlist the kiddoes on this one. Have them make bats or ghosts to hang from the branches.

And now, if you've endured long enough to read ALL THE WAY to the end of this post, here comes the payoff! Many of you asked how I edited yesterday's photos to look so old and spooky. I found this great Japanese website that takes modern photos and makes them look a hundred years old. Go check out the Bakumatsu Koshashin Generator here, but I'm warning you, it can become VERY ADDICTING! Before you know it, you'll be aging all your photos of your dog, your kid, or heaven help me, your cat!

Happy Tuesday! Tomorrow I'm going to show you how we checked something off of our "to boo" list this week.

Ghoulish Decor 2009 . . .

If you don't already know, we've got a little Halloween love going on in our family. The Queen's got skulls and rats aplenty, as well as some creepy framed bugs and a death mask of my younger brother's face. Weird? Yes! Spooky? Absolutely!

My photobro has an interesting assortment of dental molds and assorted tooth specimens he brings out around this time of year. I have a theory that his fear of dentists has caused him to warn all the little kiddies about the danger of too much candy through his seasonal decor. Yeah, we're strange like that!

At my house, we lean a little more towards the child friendly Halloween. But only a little. Here's a sneak peek at this year's fare:

Pumpkin under glass.

The plate wall in the dining room has some new visitors. Arachnophobes beware.

What little eight-legged friend wouldn't want to live in an urn of decrepit, black ivy?

Our family's version of "Thing" {name that show} holding test tubes full of creepy, crawling friends.

Whimsy & Warning - perfect for All Hallows Eve!

Spooky black branches adorned with skull & bone ornaments and black and white ribbon.

Anatomy of a skeleton - it's important for the kids to learn, you know.

A skull candle just waiting to be lit on the big night with rats standing at attention.

Stay tuned 'til tomorrow when I'll give the how to's on a few of these EASY, CHEAP decorations.