Some old stuff for my old house.

I went antique/thrift/flea market shopping in Houston this weekend with the goal of finding something to fill this space.

I've never really known how to fill it...the TV hutch can't be centered because then the front door would hit it, so it has remained empty for almost three years.  Sometimes (as can be seen here in this picture from New Year's Eve) we hang sparkly numbers & streamers from the ceiling to fill the space.  

We actually liked those numbers & ribbons so much they stayed up till around Valentine's Day.  We seriously considered just hanging seasonal things around the numbers to celebrate year round.  But then decided that was borderline tacky (not that that's stopped me before!).  

OK so my good friend Ashley just moved to Montrose (fun area near downtown Houston) that's known for good food & fun antique/resale/flea market stores (among other things...they also hosted the Pride Parade this weekend).   In the less than 24 hours that I was there we were quite the foodies.  Tapas at Oporto, pizza at Papou Jerry's Gyro Truck, brunch at Tiny Boxwood's & lunch at Torchy's Taco.  Yum yum yum.  (BTW--my fav was probably Torchy's...shrimp taco & portobello mushroom taco...so good!)  And it's a good thing we walked up & down Westheimer!  We earned a smidgeon of what we ate!  :)  We started at the Guild Shop, which claims (and I might agree) that it's the best resale shop in Houston.  It is awesome.  I didn't find what I was looking for, but my sister did find some fun pieces of Fiestaware.  I was kind of looking for an old window frame or ladder to hang on the wall behind the TV.  I thought that'd be a good way to fill the oddly shaped space.  But after walking to the end of the street without much hope, I found these colored wood & metal frames.  We did some arranging & digging to find the best ones & in a few minutes I decided this was it!  I bought 6--all different colors & a few different shapes.  And after arranging a few different ways once I got home...

I love them!  They're pretty funky, but I love the colors & as I sit here watching One for the Money with Katherine Heigl (I don't recommend it...she's a bounty hunter from Jersey...it hasn't kept my attention...it's almost over & I still don't really know what's happened...but maybe that's because I have such cool artwork behind the TV!)....I am very happy with them! 

One of my last things I wanted to accomplish was to change out the locks on my front & back doors.  They're just really old.  I bought new locks, took the old one off, forced the new one in, only to realize it didn't really fit.  Silly old door.  So I forced it back out & put the old lock back in.   I'm calling a locksmith tomorrow.  Sometimes you need to know when you can't do something.  But here's what I do know...after all the Greek food I ate this weekend I am craving a goat cheese pizza!  HEB, here I come!  

This Old House

Oh, this old house!  It's been almost a year since I did any major updates, but the time has come!  While my roommate has been away I've been busy doing some major projects this month!  Here's a bit of what I've done!  

When I bought the house in August 2009, every room was a different color...two shades of blue, two shades of green, teal, yellow and pink!  Last spring & summer I painted the teal bedroom light gray (Urban Gray from Lowe's) and loved it!  Then I painted the blue living room the same color and loved it as well!  This summer my goals included painting my bedroom (which was pink!) and the hallway (one of the greens) the same color gray.  And to re-organize my room & closet in the process!  My room organization is still a WIP, so the photos on that will have to wait...but I did finish the hallway!  And hung a gallery of pictures!  

Looking from my bedroom down the hallway to the living room.  

The gallery up close. 

And from the other angle (in case you're trying to see if you made the wall!)  :)

One of my other projects was to get a bench to serve as seating at the dining room table.  I got 4 mix-matched chairs last fall (two stained different shades & two that I painted red & turquoise).  The bench is painted with the leftover red paint.  I love it! 

It's distressed on purpose...not dirty...though that's how it looks in this picture!

The whole mix-matched set!  Come to my house for dinner & you can sit here!

Still on the to-do list: Finish organizing my closet, organize my storage/craft room, organize my garage.  We'll see how much gets done before Erin gets home (June 30!).  

The last of the summer crafts.

Fall ministries kicked off this week and boy am I glad I finished all my projects last weekend!  There's been zero down time this week!  We took 47 volunteer youth leaders on our fall semester leadership retreat this weekend--the Lord has provided an incredible group of young men & women to lead and love the junior high & high school students of College Station!  I'm so humbled & excited that God has chosen to use me in this place!  So onto the less important things--the non-eternal but more easily photographed things in my life!  :)  

First...I made this t-shirt & onsie for some friends as a gift on the birth of their second child (a boy) and a big sis gift for their first kid.  This is the last 3-6mos onsie I'm sewing!  Too teeny!  I really liked doing the 24mos t-shirt--much more surface area!  

Next...the dining room is (finally!) complete!  I've never owned a dining room table (and still don't actually)--my roommate Erin bought this table from World Market & we decided we wanted to do mix-matched chairs like Monica & Rachel's apartment on Friends.  

Not the best pic, but the only one I could find!  Isn't her mix-matched table & chairs fun & funky?  I wanted a similar look so decided to buy old or unfinished chairs & re-do them.  I looked at a few antique stores around town, but then found some new chairs on sale at an unfinished furniture store (where my distressed book shelf came from).  Two chairs were stained different shades already but two were totally unfinished.  I painted one red & one turquoise, distressed them & and I love them!  

Don't you just want to sit here & eat?  And don't they look great with my new painting by my friend Janise?  I love it & love how great it looks in here!

This one's my favorite--I love how the turquoise turned out over the dark brown base color I did.  

Well, my free time is gone for a while, so I don't foresee any crafting time in the near future.  I am loving the somewhat cooler temperatures right now (well it was 101 today, but a few weeks ago it was 112!).  And I am super loving the fact that Starbucks is serving fall drinks!  I love me a pumpkin spice latte!  

Happy fall!

Living Room Makeover!

After two years I have finally arranged & decorated my living room!

The 1st season of The OC & I did a marathon 4 days of painting, sewing & moving furniture!  I repainted the living room/dining room in Urban Sunrise from Lowe's.  It's what I did my guest room in & I love it!  I washed the white curtains that were left in my house by the previous owners & added tan linen ruffles inspired by Jones Design Company.  The idea for this ruffle pillow also came from there--

My couch is red check with denim trim & belonged to my Aunt Jennifer.  I inherited it when I moved into my house almost two years ago & LOVE how big it is & the sweet memories associated with it, but since it's a little more "country" than the rest of my house, I recovered all the throw pillows in red floral, damasks & toile.  Somehow I think they all work together.  I hope.  If you don't think so, don't tell me.  :)

I got the artwork behind the couch from the Renegade Craft Fair that I went to last weekend with my friend Lynn.  These prints were one of the first things I saw & I knew immediately that they were exactly what I'd been unable to picture for my living room for so long!  The artist is Kate Thomas & her Etsy store is Little Things Studio.  All three prints have verses from hymns & I love them!

I also added a few things in my kitchen!  I recently found a stool that was the perfect fit for a little spot in my kitchen & so this weekend I recovered the seat in toile (same as the couch pillows & also the ruffle wreath that hangs in the kitchen too!) & I love it!  I also hung some cool pictures I got at the Renegade Craft Fair--drawings of pots, pans, knives & coffee pots on old book pages.  The artist is Sara at Girls Can Tell.  

(Sidenote: I think my favorite thing about the art in the living room & kitchen is that I bought them straight from the artist at the craft fair!  It was really a cool place!  Lynn & I went, not knowing what to expect at all & were so pleasantly surprised by how many vendors there were & all the awesome stuff we saw there!  The only downside was that they longer we were there, the less & less crafty we felt.  I mean these people were seriously crafty!  They were also uber hipster.  We were even asked if it was our first time there, we stuck out so much.  But we loved it.  The gal who did the prints in my living room was very lovely & kind and I'm so glad that every time I see her work it reminds me of her & the fun day with Lynn!)

I'm very pleased with how it all turned out.  But unfortunately my Memorial Day Weekend "to-do" list isn't quite finished yet.  Off to mow the yard & clean my room.  Notice my two least favorite things got pushed to the end of the list.  I did all the fun things first!  :)  

Extreme anxiety, sorrow or pain.

That would be the definition of distress.  And no, I am not distressed...but my newly redesigned guest room is!  :)  Over the last few weeks, I've been painting and scraping & furnishing my guest room & it's been hard work, but now that it's mostly done, it's been so worth it!  Unfortunately I don't have many "before" pictures.  The room had teal walls & the dresser I re-did had been my cousins & then mine as a baby.  I painted it red & blue in high school & so was faced with the task of scraping off all the old paint before my sweet friend Lynn came in to town to teach me how to distress it!  Inspired by this website, I painted it brown, then Del Coronado Tequila (off white-ish), took a sanding block to it & then added some knobs from World Market...and I love the result!  I did the same with an unfinished bookshelf I bought.  I painted the room Urban Gravity (gray), put together a bed, got my grandfather's rocking chair recovered, moved in my grandmother's sea chest & voila!  A guest room!

Don't you just want to come visit me so you can stay in my guest room?  My friend Ashley is in town this weekend & we've been crafting it up!  More on that later!  Stay tuned!  :)