A New Series...

My Favorite Things: the Kitchen/Dining Room

A New Name...

C'est La Vie is now "Welcome Home". Along with the new name and new look, I hope to bring you new features soon, such as recipes. Stay tuned!

My latest mistreatment...

A while back, I rearranged our living room just a bit. Everything had been in the same place ever since we have lived in this house (10 years), so I thought it was time to try something new. The only problem was, that with the new arrangement, the couch had to be pulled out from the wall to center it. That left about an 18" space that needed to be filled. Now of course I would have loved to have gone down to my local shee-shee-poo-poo furniture store and bought something, but, well, I'm too frugal (and my wallet too empty) for that, so I got creative.

I made the base out of an old aquarium stand that has been sitting in my parents' garage for, oh, at least 28 years. Normally Mom and I would stand and shake our heads with our lips pursed in contempt for Dad's pack-ratting, but in this case, it paid off for me! The stand was just the right height. All it needed was a solid top. For that, I used a piece of plywood that hubby had laying in our garage. A few measurements and cuts and I had a sofa table!

The table cloth is one I had in the linen closet, the lamp- $9 from Wally World, and the rest I had around the house. It fills the space just perfectly.

Don't forget Kimba's DIY Day Party!

Wanna dish?...

If you know me, you know that I have had a long-time love affair with dishes. And if there's any doubt, all you have to do is look around my house.

The master bedroom:

The dining room:

The kitchen:

The living room:

Go check out Hooked on Fridays and let everyone know what you're hooked on!

The Master Bath...

The master bath is almost finished! This has been a long, drawn-out process that at times, I don't think will ever get done. We're in the home stretch now, though. It will all be done as soon as we get some flooring. We had quite an ordeal with the flooring: ordering tile, ripping up part of the old stuff, waiting for ages for the tile, walking on plywood subfloor in half the room, finding out the store can't get the tile...well, you get the picture.

Otherwise, the room is shaping up. We have paint ("Prussian Blue" by Porter), the new light fixture (brushed nickel) and mirror (only $30, by the way)

My Big Lots mercury-like vase and a frame with toile that matches the shower curtain...

My $6 window I bought at my favorite antique store, layered with a repurposed frame I spray-painted and hung by a ribbon.

Frames I bought at the Dollar Tree with scrapbook paper instead of photos:

Now, if we could just get a floor...

The Guest Bathroom...

Earlier this spring, I shared with you some ideas I had for the guest bath. It had been a sore spot for me ever since I painted the bottom of the wall red. Now, normally I love red, but it just didn't work for me in here. We finally decided to paint the room "Bronco Brown" by Porter Paint. I wasn't sure about this color that my hubby had picked out, but as soon as I rolled it on the wall, I loved it.

The next step was the fun stuff: shower curtains, a new mirror, light fixture, and all the "pretties". I found the shower curtain at Wal-Mart:

The mirror and light fixture:

Now, when I say I'm a frugal decorator, I mean it. The metal piece over the towel bar was $6 at Dollar General, the picture was $5 (D.G.), and the wire basket was really expensive-$7-at WalMart (its actually a flower basket from the lawn and garden department!). The towel bars and holder are also from Wally World. The sunburst mirror was one I repurposed fromt he other bathroom. A rug from JCPenney and I was done. We love it!

Please stay tuned...

Just to let you know, we're back in business! Tomorrow I'll try to post some pictures of some projects I promised to show you months ago. We've been busy around here, and we have some new things in the works!

Please hold...

Work on the master bath has stalled for a few days while we wait for the tile and sink to arrive.  Now, I'd describe the tile to you, but since I haven't seen it either, we'll all be surprised together when it gets here!  My husband has taken the role of interior designer, so he ordered it without me having seen a sample. Normally I'd be worried about what I was going to get, but he's done a bang-up job so far, so I'm sure it will be beautiful.  The sink is a chocolatey-brown granite-looking one that I think will look great with the blue paint.  But until they arrive (supposedly today) the project is on hold.

Meanwhile, the summery temperatures here have put me into gardening mode.   Last night I bought 2 double Knock-Out rose bushes and planted by the front porch, and potted 2 hanging baskets with purple wave petunias. They went on hanging brackets on the back deck.  And I couldn't resist the bright red New Guinea impatiens at the store either. They went on the deck as well.  We're not done though.  Derek brought home some pine tree seedlings his store gave away for Arbor Day. Those will have to go in the ground soon. All we need now is new chairs for the front porch to replace that old park bench, and I'll be ready for summer!

Moving on...

The hall bath is finished (I promise I'll post some pics soon!), so we're moving on to the BIG job--the master bath. We started with dark mushroom paint, an ugly 10-year-old vinyl floor that had come apart from the wall, a b&w toile shower curtain, brass accessories, and a chrome builder's basic faucet. Oh, and don't forget that must-have-come-from-the-70's (even though the house was built in '98) light bar over the sink. That's the "before".

For our "after", we're putting Prussian Blue on the wall (think a muted medium blue). We're putting down a beige ceramic tile on the floor, along with a new light fixture, mirror, counter top, and satin nickel faucet & towel bars. Derek even bought me a new wet saw for the tile! Yes, you do detect a strange excitement there. Who would have thought I'd be excited about a saw? I'm really watching too much DIY shows on TV...I think the saw is an early Mother's Day gift, but that's okay--I'm getting him new chairs for the front porch that I've been wanting! We do have an strange way of buying gifts for each other--we buy the other what we want and disguise it as a gift for the other person. Works great for our birthdays, too, since my b'day is the day before his--we always get what we want! But, I digress...

So, we put the primer on 2 nights ago, and tonight, we're going blue. Saturday we're ripping up the old vinyl flooring, laying the cement board (which we'll have to walk on for a few days until our tile arrives) and putting up the towel bars. I think I'll wait until the tile goes down to seriously decorate, though. Too bad I'm not very patient!

Crooks and Countertops...

I guess you're wondering if I've lost my way back to the Blog...there hasn't been a post in quite a while. Well, the laptop officially bit the dust. I'd have a new one by now, but, it seems, that someone has helped themselves to our tax refund. And the rest of our bank account. Yep, the debit card number was stolen, and now we're just hangin' in there until payday, or until the company whose system was hacked (a transaction processing company) replaces our money, whichever comes first. Not holding my breath on the last one. They don't seem to see the urgency of my lack of funds. Don't they know I have plans for that money? That there are antiques out there waiting for me to come snatch them up? And that it will be yard sale season soon?

In the meantime, Derek is trying to remind me that Jesus is listening to me when I speak of getting my hands on the crook who took our money and how I'd love to pluck out his eyelashes one by one. Waterboarding is sounding like a pretty good option right now. Feathers and fur, he keeps reminding me, feathers and fur. Now, for those of you with that "lost dog in high weeds" look on your face, he's reminding me that if God takes care of the birds of the air, He's gonna take care of us, too (see Matthew 6:25-34). He always has. Believe me, this isn't the first time we've been through a bit of a financial dry spell. And He's always brought us through it. But this is the first time someone has actually stolen our money. Ugh.

On the brighter side, we did finish the guest bathroom redo. We did paint, a new shower curtain (see the post below), towel bars, curtain rod, counter top and faucet. Plus towels and a new rug. I'll post pictures of it as soon as I can remember to bring my camera to work to upload the photos.

Don't you forget about me...

Remember that song?

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I promise! The old laptop finally went kaput, so we're shopping around for another one. Meanwhile, we're getting ready to start work on the bathroom. However, my original plan has been scrapped, and my husband (who has gotten so good at designing rooms that it is scary) has come up with something I like even better.

Here's the paint (the one on top, Bronco Brown from Porter):

And here's the shower curtain, courtesy of Wally World:

We're also getting a new countertop, faucet (oil rubbed bronze) and a new light fixture. I'll try to keep you updated!

We interrupt the regularly scheduled programming...

...because of technical difficulties. Don't you just love technology? One minute you have the world at your fingertips, the next minute you're completely cut off! The old laptop has gone in the shop for repairs, so I'm blogging from work today (shhhh! don't tell my principal!), and it looks like I'll be a little scarce for a few days. Don't worry, though! I'll be back soon!

A painting we will go, a painting we will go...

So here is our hall bath, the next stop on our to-do list.

About a year and a half ago, I painted the bottom half red to coordinate with the living room. However, as much as I have tried, I just don't like it. I love the beige/red combination in the living room, but here, eh, not so much. So you know what that means...drag out the rollers and brushes, Angela's painting again! I've decided on a soft blue to go with the beige on top (I do still like it, so I'm not changing it). Something along the lines of this:

(This is Danish Linen Sky from Ballard Designs).

Of course, this means stripping wallpaper border, one of my LEAST favorite jobs. I'm still trying to decide whether to put up another border or to do something different. If I do chair rail, it will have to be stained rather than painted (all our moulding is stained). Any ideas out there?

I've decided to fancy up the shower curtain, too. I'm thinking about adding a little fringe to the the valance, maybe something like this:

or this:

(photos courtesy http://www.warehousefabricsinc.com/)

Of course new rugs and some blue towels. And some pretty new chachkis for the shelf. Should I paint that or get something new? Oooh, I know, one of those pretty half-round wire baskets! How about something like this:

or

(http://www.shabbyshorescottagechic.blogspot.com/

and

http://www.idealmoments.co.uk/ )

We're also replacing the faucet with something like this:

(http://www.doitbest.com/)

The good news is, Derek can get it at a hefty discount at work!

Now for the wall with the grate. I'm thinking about moving that somewhere else and putting a vintage window up there. I love the idea of using those old windows as art! I've seen several lately around the blogosphere, and I think that one would fit that long wall just fine. Should I leave the panes empty, or add something to jazz them up? Or just some of them? I'm not sure yet about that one.

So many ideas buzzing around my head! I really can't wait to get started on this one. One thing is for sure, though, I'm gonna need about 3 gallons of primer to cover that red!

One Little Word...

I don't normally make New Year's resolutions. When I was a teenager, I enjoyed sitting down with a pen and paper and scribbling out things I'd like to accomplish in the new year. However, over the years I found that I wasn't too good at keeping those resolutions, so I just gave up. No need to go to the trouble when I know I won't follow through.
The other day, I read about a twist on the resolution idea. Instead of a list of things you hope to do, you pick a word for the year, something to focus on (check out Ali Edwards' blog for more about this). I've been trying to think of what it is that I really need to work on this year, and I think I've found one little word that really sums up what I need more of in my life: discipline. I wouldn't say that my life is out of control, but there are definitely areas that I need to rein in:

• my eating and excersise habits
• my lackidaisical money-management methods (that's saying it gently!)
• my daily quiet time with God (which seems to have been put on the back burner lately)

We can definitely say that I've been a bit on the lazy side in these areas. Maybe by instilling a little (maybe a lot) of discipline, I can grow closer to God, be a better steward of his financial blessings, and stop treating my body so badly. I've even found a Bible verse to go along with it:

"The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied."

Proverbs 13:4 (NIV)

Do you have "One Little Word" for 2009?

Stephanie over at Homegrown Hospitality is even offering hand-drawn, framed doodles of your "One Little Word" for 2009. Go check her out!