Damask meets the 1970s.

If the 1970s and Damask were to meet and have a rug love child, it would be this.

Um.  Yeah.  That's not going to work for us.

At first I couldn't find the rug in the store, and then I finally saw what SORT of looked like it, but NO.... surely not.  Then I saw that a runner was available to spread out on the floor.

Yep.

What looked brown in the online photo, was actually gold in real life.  What looked like a compact weave, was actually a shag.

Yeah, baby, yeah.  ha!

Do you know how annoying it is to load three children into a car, and then into a racecar cart..

 only to leave empty handed?  Hate that.

After my husband got off of work that evening, we went to 4 different stores, with no rug luck, finally making a full circle back to Lowes. 

I showed him some of the rugs that peeked my interest earlier in the day...

but we ended up going with a tannish, yellowish rug with a very simple Berber like weave.  I didn't even notice it on my earlier trip, but we both liked it and a great bonus was that it was ultra cheap.  We scored TWO 8x10 rugs for under $200.

When we got home and unfurled them to see all of their glory, we both stood back and wondered if we measured the room correctly, ha! 

(Ignore the crazy looking, disorganized room... exactly WHY this room is getting work done.)

Despite the size fitting scare, they do both fit, and I'm thinking we made a very good choice going with something so neutral.

Meanwhile, I've painted a wall in here, and our new console arrived today...  in two big boxes, and in one million tinnnny little pieces.  :)

-Courtney

Home Office.. Coming together.

Maybe I shouldn't say coming together, lol.   In all honestly nothing is actually in the space, but things have been ordered, which is major progress in this ol' book!

Yesterday we bit the bullet and bought THIS filing console:

and this desk:

..which, the desk isn't as red looking in person, it is more of a walnut color.  If you've been around for my previous ponderings on the office, you'll remember that my husband wanted this style of desk.  Honestly, it is growing on me and I'm excited about seeing it in the room. 

We REALLY debated on the console since it is such a strong piece color wise, and part of me is regretting not getting it in black instead,

but it is on its way (in RED!)... so we shall see if it works!  lol.

I'll be headed to a Lowes in our area to check out this rug today..  LINK HERE.

The price is great for an 8x10, but I'm a little concerned the curvy ornate desk, with the Chinoiserie-style console, and then such a boldly patterned rug might be a little overkill.  Plus since this room is joined with the dining area, I want matching rugs for both.  Pattern Pattern Pattern.   I'm sure it will all come together, it's just making me nervous while we wait for everything to come in.

We're stuck on a chair though.  Modern desk chair, or more traditional cushy chair?  I love both, and I like the white in THIS chair,

but I want something I can really sink into also.  Maybe something like THIS..

Too executive looking?   We're also debating just finding a white slipped wingback and attaching casters the the bottom.   Decisions, Decisions.  What kind of chair would YOU go with?

-Courtney

Looking ahead to the Fall... installing a Pumpkin Patch.

Every year, around September, the pumpkins start hitting the supermarkets.  Every year, I want to buy about 50 of them to use around the house as decoration, or to carve with the kiddos.

I usually buy one or two, and then regret not having grown any myself.  This also happens every spring when the bluebonnets start popping up here in Texas.  You have to start those in the Fall, just like you have to start pumpkins in advance in the Spring.  I'm just, in general, not good at starting projects so far ahead of time.

Except for this year.   I was bound and determined to have my own little pumpkin patch this year.

I have read countless articles on how to grow pumpkins.  I have watched way too many youtube videos on how to grow pumpkins.  Finally, realizing I was reaching my deadline to get started if I wanted pumpkins by October, I knew I'd better get busy getting the bed ready.

I watched the yard for several days, watching the sun and the shade, trying to figure out a good, out of the way, place to build our planting bed.  Pumpkins need full sun, and our big tree in the back blocks out most of it from about 3 pm on.  Plus we have the t-ball field to work around.

Yes, that is my boys' GREAT Grandmother at bat.   LOL.

I finally decided on this area of the side yard.

It is tucked out of the way, receives at least 8 hours of sun daily, and with no large trees near by, I knew I wouldn't have to worry about digging into roots.

Now, this is probably not the best way to build a garden bed, but it works for us because it was inexpensive, and easy.  If it falls apart in a few years, we'll call it experience and rebuild in another fashion.

Supplies-  8 cedar fence pickets, 6 feet in length.    2 treated deck balusters, 42 inches in length.

Each picket was $1.98, each deck baluster was $0.98.  Cost for supplies - approximately $18.

The bed itself is approximately 18 feet long (actually a little shorter), by about 4 1/2 feet wide.  Ideally you would want a wider bed, but my husband wants to put a gate in on this side of the house, and we would need to reserve space for a path.  We may end up putting another thin planting bed along the house wall after our path is constructed.

I cut 15 inches from 2 of the cedar fence pickets to use for the border at the small widths of the bed, leaving the other 6 pickets to line the length, 3 per side.   I cut the dog ears from the pickets so they would fit flush together.

The 42 inch deck balusters, I cut into four pieces each, and then cut a wedge off of each end, making them into stakes.  This provided me with 8 stakes to use at the junction of each fence picket.  I used galvanized screws to hold the construction together.

The goal was not to make a complete raised bed, because then I would have to completely back fill with soil, which can get expensive.  Plus, our soil is actually in pretty good condition as is, it just need a bit of amending, not a complete overhaul.

Because of this, I sank the border down a bit.  We'll see how this works out in the long run.  I may have a rotting border in just a few months, but I'm hoping to get at least a few years out of it.

I finished the construction of the bed yesterday morning, and we amended the soil yesterday evening.  We'll let it rest for a day or so, and then start our planting.  I am so excited, and I'll share our progress as our plants fill in.

:)   Courtney

Featured, and a Garden.

A big Thank You to Michelle @ Someday Crafts for featuring my book ledges today.

The post can be found HERE.



 

I'm also having some major garden prepping envy over here.

You have to check out what is going on over at AUGUST FIELDS.

 

Make sure you follow her link at the bottom to her inspiration post.  It is to die for, and makes me wish we had some acreage to create something as beautiful on.

 

-Courtney

The first of many Playroom Projects

So a few months ago, I posted this post about re-doing our playroom and why I wanted to update the space.

Since that post, I've given the room a lot of thought, and evolved several ideas. 

Since storage and function is a priority for me, I'll start this playroom makeover with a highly functional project- Organizing my children's books.

This is what it looks like now..

This was the previous storage method...

Yet, imagine all of those books scattered on the floor, and that is what it generally looked like..

Why?

My boys would pull out books to look at, and then would have trouble putting them back onto the bookshelf correctly.  Or, they would have a book in mind that they wanted to read, but they would pull off several books before they found the specific one they wanted.   Then, of course, they couldn't get the books back onto the shelf because the other books were falling over.

I knew over a year ago that this book storage was just not working for us.  I noticed at the library that the children's section displays several books with the cover forward, so that the little ones can see the pictures since the words on the spine mean very little to them. 

I knew that this was the solution we needed.

However, what would I use to hold the books?

I have IKEA photo ledges in my family room..

and my immediate thought was to use them.  However, I measured the space and I knew I wanted at least 10 shelves.   The 45 inch version is $14.99... so for 10 shelves, not even measuring 4 ft, I'd be paying over $150.

Hmmm.

I noticed that another blog, The Stories of A to Z, used rain gutters.  http://www.thestoriesofa2z.com/2009/09/rain-gutter-bookshelves.html

Super creative, but I wasn't sure that this would work in my space.  I wanted something more streamlined, and the gutters in my local store were kinda sharp.  Since I'm not all that great at supervising my children while they're playing in their dedicated space, I wasn't so sure sharp metal edges were a good idea.

My next thought was to just build something like the IKEA shelves, myself.  I priced the wood, and it would was going to save me about $50 to DIY them, plus I could make them longer if I wanted - I was aiming for 5 feet.

I did plan to adapt the design to make them more durable, I planned on using a flat board as the base, with a quarter round trim piece to hold the books on the ledge.  I thought the trim would give just enough bump to keep the books from sliding off, while being low profile enough to not catch the books when the boys were trying to remove them.

I decided this was my plan of action until I actually arrived at my local store to purchase my supplies.  When browsing on the trim aisle, I came across this molding (which I'm assuming is used for baseboards). 

A 10 foot strip was $6.90.   What I liked about this particular trim, was that the board came with several grooves which work perfectly to catch the books and keep them from falling.  Plus, each 10 foot length would give me TWO five feet ledges, making them 3.45 each (not including other supplies, tax, etc.). 

I put 5 of the 10 foot lengths on my lovely blue rollie cart and strolled on over to the hardware section.  I found the perfect sized L brackets in a pack of four for approximately $3.. it was a little less, but my receipt blew away in the Lowe's parking lot, so I really have no idea the exact amount.  3 per shelf x 10 shelves = 30. 

I put 8 packs in my cart and also bought some heavy duty glue/adhesive.

Following the directions, I coated each bracket with the Goop and let sit for 2 min.  Meanwhile I mended this guy.

The first casualty of the 2011 Mini-Teeball season.  :(   LOL.

After 2 minutes the adhesive was ready to attach the the trim pieces which I'd earlier cut to size.

I pressed the brackets firmly into place, placing one approximately 4 inches in from each end, and one in the center of each ledge.

Per the instructions, I then let them cure for 24 hours.   Okay, maybe 16 hours.  ha.

Then came installation.

I started at the bottom, knowing that I wanted the larger, heavier books near the floor to avoid any head injuries in case they were to fall.

I then placed the tallest of the books on the shelf, to make sure there was enough room before attaching the next up.

Just like I'd hoped, the grooves held the books perfectly.

Since the shelves have two deep grooves, I'm even able to double up the books if needed.

I used a long level when hanging the shelves, and even though the L brackets show when the shelves are empty, they cover up perfectly when full.

The final total was around $67.  This included five strips of the 10 ft. moulding, 8 packages of 4 L brackets, adhesive, and a small chip brush to touch up the white paint.

I am beyond happy with the results. 

Our books are OFF the floor, inviting my kiddos to sit and read a bit.

-Courtney

Linking to:whatever-goes-wednesday

Liam's first trip to the beach!

So yesterday, my pal Stephanie and I decided to take a spur of the moment trip to the beach.  Spur of the moment in this case would be - the day before, "Hey, let's go to the beach"... leaving me all day yesterday to actually prepare.  haha.  I'll be the first to admit that 3 children (and me!) require a lot of preparation.

So, after school let out, we all loaded up and headed South.

As we drove, the sky became darker and it was actually pretty cool and very overcast when we arrived.  I'd actually bought Liam cute little shorts with a matching sunhat just for this occasion, but since it was so NOT sunny, and was actually VERY windy, I didn't even change him into his cute little outfit. Maybe next time I'll get some cute photos of him in his "beach wear".   :)

-Courtney

MIA much?

Well I knew I'd taken a little time away, but it has actually been a whole month!  Boy Howdy.

I'm not really sure WHY I took a blog break, I just didn't feel like it for a week or so, and then it actually felt GOOD not to check into Blogger.  It was actually freeing.

Week 2 passed, then Week 3... Week 4... and here we are. 

Meanwhile...

Liam has started moving and shaking..

T-ball season has ended...

-Rylan is the one yelling directly in the face of the Coach on the ground-

(Brodie)

and I've started about 10 different projects around the house.   However, none of them are finished.  Ha!  Typical me.  :p

Hope to check in more now that our schedules aren't quite so busy around here.

-Courtney