My NEW living room!

~ I finished my living room. Took me a few months, but it's done. Here is what I did this afternoon.

Here it is painted the dark chocolate brown (roasted nut to be exact by Behr)and rearranged:



Looking into the dining room which is also the play room:



And here is the finishing living room wall photo look:




Next post will be my completed laundry room! Stay tuned.

My desktop picture......it's says everything.

Lowe's customer service and Jute Rugs

Two weeks ago while reading a decorating blog, I came across a picture of a jute rug that was on clearance at Lowe's. I fell in love with it and for $17.00, I could not complain! It would go well in my newly painted living room. It's the one on the right with the yellow flowers.



So, I went on the hunt. Supposedly, they were on order to a Lowe's warehouse, so I ordered one - cool! Well, alas, it never arrived.

I talked to Bellingham Lowe's flooring dept, Lowe's national customer service line and the manager of the Lowe's in Mt Vernon, trying to locate one. No one could since it is considered an In & out item which means I guess that they sometimes are in stores and then it could be months before they arrive again.

I am sad. But I am not sad at the customer service I received. Usually you always hear about the bad times, but let me just say, everyone I spoke with either in person or the phone were AWESOME to work with. They all tried their best and really helped me - they didn't pass me off to another person.

Thank you Lowe's for being helpful. Too bad I could not find the rug though, but I will keep trying. I will definitely come back to your store and shop and I will for sure tell people that you are great to work with!

Painting the living room

Yes, two posts in one day, but that is the way things go around here.

This is what I am currently working on. Painting the burgundy paint a deep chocolate in our living room. I started out with 5 different samples and let me tell you, I am so glad I did. Some ended up with a green tint, others a black tint. Oh goodness. It was weird.

After much discussion, I am going with the chocolate color that is the farthest left. It's called roasted nuts and is the only one both Rick and I agreed on. It is probably not as dark as either one of us wanted, but it's a good choice. The pic was taken when all the paint was still wet, so it really doesn't look right.



And let me give credit where credit is due. Way back when, I had wanted to paint the lower burgundy portion a deep peacock turquoise color but then decided against that, since that would make my entire first floor some shade of blue. Then my dear husband said the following:

Why not paint it a brown color - like the color of dark coffee with just a touch of milk in it? Can I just say that I married the right man for me? It's like he understands me and my crazy creative brain.

It will be painted this weekend if all goes well.

Tile coasters - so easy

Last week, Ella finished school and I needed to find teacher gifts so I turned to this project that I had done over Christmas time. Oh my - easy and turns out great!

16 cent tiles that I make into coasters.

Here's what you need:

4x4 tiles from Lowes/Home Depot
Modge podge
pretty scrapebook papaer
craft paint
felt
glue gun
paint brushes
Acrylic spray paint

1. Paint the edges to cover the white tile.



2. Spread some modge podge on the tile front and lay a piece of paper down and carefull smooth out. It may creat some bubbles, so make your modge podge very thin. Let dry and repeat this step THREE times. You want three good layers of modge podge.



3. Spray THREE layers of acrylic paint outside or in your garage. Thin even layers work best.

4. Glue felt on the back of the tile.

5. Let the tiles sit for 4 weeks so that they can cure. Don't stack them on top of each other, otherwise they will dry together!

Once they are cured, they are ready to use for either hot or cold beverages! Of course, I put this porject off till the last moment, hence I forgot to take a pic of the final project.....oh well!

New picture art

Last month, I found a new website that was going live and because of that, they were offering a $40.00 credit if you signed up with their site. Of course, I did.

Paper Corterie (http://www.papercoterie.com) is an awesome website. They offer calendars, journals, stationary, posters, photo books, etc.....

Well, I decided to go with the 20x30 photo collage poster! I love it. What is so cool is the poster is vinyl so I can change the frame or put it directly on a wall or whatever! I framed it in a poster frame from Walmart (i.e. cheap) and hung it over our family room couch. I love how it looks. The pictures are each like 3x3 so you get a good look at each person's face.

take a look:

Hanging her art

I am back - have been working on 3 different projects which I will show you over the next week. Here is the first:



I cute little board to hang projects that Ella brings home from school. Found an old board, painted it and then bought these really little clothspins and glued them with wood glue to the board. They are a little fragile but so cute!



Ella loves it and always wants to make things for me to hang :)