Thursday Things I Love! (Living Room Lamps)

The Home Depot's current slogan is "More saving. More doing." I don't know about you, but this perfectly describes our HD experience as of late.

First, we found the perfect wall lamps for our bedroom at the perfect price. And then, while in the midst of painting the living room, I went to HD to pick up a few supplies and found the perfect lamps for the side tables in our living room.
Just like the white in the artwork, the white on these lamps really pops against the new paint color.

I love the gourd shape and the ribbing texture.

Even my cute handyman thought thinks they are great. Thanks once again Home Depot!

NYR #17, Painting the Living Room

When we first moved into our house, we painted Rock's room (above) and Fix's study (not pictured).

Then, we slowly moved on to the dining room...
And a focal wall in the master bedroom.

But one room, the living room, has remained unpainted. When I was spending a lot of time nursing Rock in this room, I often found myself dreaming of painting the walls and imagining which color would work the best.

But long after Rock was weaned, the walls remained white, blah and boring. Our living room was lacking life!
That is, until I found CLAPBOARD GRAY - the perfect gray that somehow conveys warmth even though it has undertones of blue and green!

So we set to work preparing the room for a paint makeover! Our walls were a mess (thanks to previous owners and my carelessness) so it took a LONG time to get them ready to paint.

This is my I've-been-prepping-the-walls-for-two-whole-days-face (y0u can also see the beginning of my baby bump). Then, with lots of help from my dad and my husband, I applied two coats of primer to really cover all the patching we had done...

Then with two coats of low-VOC Clapboard Gray paint, the living room was transformed!

The color is light so it's hard to capture on film. Or at least it's hard for an amateur photographer to capture on film...

But it makes a big difference in the space. I'll explain the broken lamp in a future post!
The new paint job really brings the room together - it even makes the penny jar look good!

It might appear 'white' to you, but if you look closely at the top of this picture you can see the difference between the walls and the ceiling.

The best part is, it's DONE! YAY! 17 NYR's down, 8 to go!
p.s. You may have noticed (or not!) that we didn't rehang the old curtains in the newly painted room. Neither of us were very crazy about them so we decided to find something new. I'll keep you posted (pun intended) on what we pick.

NYR#16, Living Room Art

Shortly after we moved into our current house, I found some artwork at TJMaxx to put behind out living room sofa.

While I loved the style of these three metal pieces, after awhile I started to wish that they were the same color.And thankfully the scrolly parts were screwed on to the square parts so I just flipped them over and took them off to give them a new look.

To do this I sanded them down...

And painted them. I have no pictures of the painting process as that happened while my camera was being repaired (again). But if you must know, I did two coats of a spray primer and then used the paint tester pictured above (only 2 FL OZ. was plenty for this project) and a sponge brush to apply two coats of paint.
I was very pleased with the results.

But it wasn't until we painted the living room (that's NYR #17 to be posted tomorrow) that they really popped.

With the busy fabric below, I think the new paint cuts down on the visual clutter and makes the artwork even better. YAY!

Thursday Things I Love! (Mr. Clean Erasers)

These things work wonders on walls to erase all the tiny hand prints, scrapes, marks and spots. Can't recommend them highly enough.

What Missy Calls Pretty

Remember when I made cookies for Addy?

Well, I got the idea from my friend Missy (her cookies are pictured above). She is a fabulous crafter and a meticulous sewer.

And now you can buy her goods on Etsy. Check her out at http://www.WhatICallPretty.etsy.com. Everything she does is incredibly adorable and incredibly well-made. I can say this because I have seen her wares (well, not all of them, but enough of them to know!) in person.
If for nothing else, I'd click over there to read her cute names and witty descriptions. Not only can she create, this girl can write! Congrats Missy! I wish you the greatest success with this new adventure!

Beanbags for Linus

For Linus's birthday, I made him six beanbags. I cut the little monkeys playing musical instruments out of a cute fabric scrap I had, ironed them on with Heat-n-Bond, and zigzag stitched around their edges.

Although I told him he would not like it, Rock insisted on eating one of the dried beans as I was pouring them in. It came in a bag and looked like a jelly bean so he figured clearly it was candy and I was trying to deprive him. After a moment or two in his mouth he decided that he did not like it.

Pajama Party

I'm gonna take on SewMamaSew's Pajama Party challenge! I'm thinking that I'll make some pj's for me that will last through the ninth month of pregnancy, a pair (or two!) of pj pants for Rock, and maybe even something for Fix. I'll let you know how it goes.

Comments?

This is a couple months old but I forgot that I had taken it.

Someone wrote on the sidewalk in front of our house "I love guys with good hair, pretty eyes, & big B*TTS!" Any comments?

NYR#15, Swing Arm Lamp Installation

Although I love many aspects of our bedroom, the lighting on our bedside tables has never been one of them.
I've always wanted a pair of swing arm lamps, but I could never find any I liked that were cheaper than $75.00 each and I wasn't willing to spend that much money.
But I kept looking because the state of our bedside tables kept bugging me. What? You don't think they looked that bad? Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Fix was reading by the light of a clip-on lamp he bought before he knew me.

And I kept a weak spotlight and a travel reading lamp on my side to help illuminate my late-night reading.
Then, last week, my husband (Thank you thank you thank you honey!) found the most wonderfully perfect swing arm lamps at HOME DEPOT for $35.00 each!

They are the perfect size, shape, color, etc. for our room.

By the way, I have listed this post as an NYR because I installed them all by myself.

After I hung them, I stood and looked at them for a good 5 minutes straight. Since then I've been walking around with a goofy grin on my face. I just can't help it.

My name is Rachel. And I'm addicted to my new swing-arm lamps.

Pinkalicious!

So this past weekend I squeezed in some time during all our family festivities to make these adorable cookies.

I completely copied the idea of baking with felt from my friend Missy.

Then I put them in this random bag I had in our wrapping paper box, substituted a hot pink ribbon for the boring white one the bag came with....

And added them to my birthday gift for my niece Addy. In case you haven't read it yet, Pinkalicious is an adorable book for little girls (and boys too I guess) about a girl who eats too many pink cupcakes. If only I was talented enough to make felt cupcakes.... sigh.

I also made her this adorable pink dress that probably won't fit her until her next birthday (does anyone else have as much trouble with toddler sizing as I do?!) Happy Birthday Miss Addy!