Weekend Challenge: Sunroom

Our sunroom has always been one of our most used, and yet most neglected, rooms in the home. Every party we host, the sunroom becomes the music and dancing center, and so it was important to us to keep the room open. On a daily basis, the sunroom has always been our cats' favorite place to lounge, and I have slowly been moving my crafting supplies into the room...

Step 1? Clear out everything.

Unfortunately, this room evolved into a space to store all of our wedding goodies until we found real homes for them. Cutting boards, picture frames, a deep fryer, glasses, car repair kits... A little bit of this, and a little bit of that.

Step 2 - deep cleaning. Something I learned - vinegar is a seriously badass cleaner. I have a spray bottle of 2 parts water, 1 part vinegar that I use as a general cleaner. The old owners of our home were smokers, and vinegar has done wonders.


Step 3 - My first rule when redoing a space is to only bring things back in that you want to live in that room. I know it sounds like common sense, but this is something that most people forget. And once you end up with a pile of stuff that doesn't fit in the space anymore, it becomes a lot easier to purge the items you don't need.

I'm really happy wit how the space turned out, even though a lot of the changes are temporary. We're going to need to drag everything out again to repair the walls and paint, but damn. Already a big difference.

And you see that horrible ugly light fixture? I'm so blessed to have an electrician for a husband... He put in a beautiful new light on a dimmer switch, which is going to be awesome for entertaining!

I found these pillows at Home Depot in the garden center, but they really helped me figure out my vision for this room. Once I do a little more and get the paint on the walls, I'll post another update!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Day Off Challenge: Living Room

I have today off for Presidents' Day, but Husband had to go into work, so I figured I'd contribute something worthwhile to society. Now, I'm not going to lie and say that I got up early and got to work right away... 

No, I snoozed my alarm several times. Watched some My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and had some snacks. (Healthy snacks, mind you - a huge bowl of various fruits!)

But all was not lost! I totally got up off the couch and did some productive things! My main project for the day, after figuring out how to get Pandora running on the PS3, was cleaning the living room. Believe it or not, this state posted below is actually not *too* bad compared to how it's been... But either way, it needed to be unfucked.

Just in case you couldn't tell where the problem areas were... Well, I highlighted them. Ahem.

So let me break down what I did to tackle this project step-by-step. This is for all of you that seriously hate cleaning. If you're a veteran cleaner/organizer, I promise you won't learn anything from me. Not on this post, anyway.

Step 1: Music. Put on your favorite motivational music. I like the Summer Hits of the 90s genre station on Pandora. Whatever gets you up and moving! 

Step 2: Dishes. Remove ALL dishes from the room and put them in the sink (or better yet, dishwasher).

Step 3: Couch. I cleared everything off the couch, fluffed it, febreezed it, and then neatly returned the pillows to their home. Always start by giving yourself a clean, comfy area to sit so that way you have somewhere comfortable to hang out and tackle that pile of papers that you've been meaning to go through but just haven't had the time...

Step 4: Coffee table. Our coffee table is where everything in the world lives, and it gets cluttered very quickly. Remove EVERYTHING from it (inside, outside, on top, etc) and move it somewhere else. Now clean the table. Noooow, you can slowly move things back. But keep in mind: does this item have a better home than the coffee table? If so, put it in its better home!! If you're lucky, you'll end up with a nice clean coffee table with nothing on it... Maybe now's a good time to find a new candle to burn. :3

Step 5: Floor. Same as everything else... Pick up everything and move it elsewhere. Then go through it. Find homes or trash it. This is a good time to vacuum, unless you still have a lot of surfaces to tackle. 

Nope, still not done. but here's my in-progress shot. I still need to tackle a few surfaces and then attack it with the carpet shampooer. 

Husband's Home Office: Pt 2

Husband's home office has been a project that has been finished, then destroyed, then made better, then made a little worse, then made a lot worse... Over and over again. I'm considering all of that craziness to be part 1. It has kind of turned into a storage room, but I really hate that. He needs his own space, and this used to be where he would game and hang out. Now it's just where he throws stuff when he doesn't feel like dealing with it right away.

Oh, also, it's where our printer lives. And it's getting hard to get to the printer...

So this is what we're dealing with. Lots of junk strewn about with no particular order to things... And the desk is missing under an avalanche of papers.

I started with the closet, which you can't see in this picture. But let's just say it was bad. Very bad. Now, it's still bad, but it's bad in a bunch of boxes...

And boxes are a lot easier to manage than junk on the floor. When you have a box, its easy to keep like things together and transport the pile as needed. So step 1 - put everything into boxes!!!

I did pretty much the same thing with the rest of the room, then threw all the boxes in the corner. It's not done, and it won't be done soon, but at least now I can get to the printer and it's not embarrassing if anyone needs to get in the room with me. 

Confessions of a Sentimentalist

There is a fine line between being sentimental and being a hoarder. Sometimes I worry that I overstep that line. As you can see by the picture to the right, courtesy of Katie Vee Photography, I had a big bouquet at my wedding. A cascade of roses, feathers, and greenery. It was seriously beautiful, but unfortunately not practical to keep around forever.

I looked into bouquet preservation, but it starts at $300... And there's a lot of other things I could get for $300 that I would love a whole lot more.

So I decided on a compromise... I kept a couple pieces of the bouquet, hung some roses upside down to dry them out, and sat on them for a few days.

I have a few boxes of dried flowers floating around... A corsage from my first prom, a flower from an anniversary, my husband's boutonniere from my parent's wedding... But this was my wedding bouquet! I had to do something special.

So I scoured the internet (mostly Pinterest) for a few hours until I found something that seemed useful. All kinds of cool ideas were out there, no doubt. But a post on OffbeatBride really got my attention. So I made an ornament with my bouquet!

It was really simple, just took some petals, a part of a feather, and the gem from my rose and popped them in an ornament. Super cute, right? Oh, and that ring around the top is from the favors my mom made for my engagement party. I knew I hoarded them for a reason!

The Perfect Wine Bar

I have been looking for The Perfect Wine Bar for our basement for well over a year now. I had a specific color, function, and size in mind. Unfortunately, no one seemed to want the same thing as me because I could not find this damn wine bar for so long.

Until one fateful day in Bed Bath and Beyond... There it was. The Perfect Wine Bar. It held glasses, bottles, had a drawer, little hideaway doors. Perfect. Amazing.

Unfortunately, there weren't any in stock around me (besides the floor model) so I had to order it online. Could barely drag the box in the door when the Fed Ex guy dropped it off, but fortunately my big, strong husband was able to haul it down to the basement.

We opened the box, knowing we'd have to do some assembly, and then started pulling out piece after piece after piece after piece after piece... And it just kept going!

Wow.

This? This is my perfect wine bar? 

Fortunately, every piece was labeled. But Husband was not amused...

We kept moving on. And on. It took a few hours (and we're IKEA experts - not our first rodeo!) and looked like we would never finish. But finally... Stepping back... There it was!

The Perfect Wine Bar. Next to our "fully" stocked bar. Tomorrow, I'll fill it up with wine, glasses, and anything else that would make sense... Can't wait! Super stoked to have this gorgeous new addition to our downstairs entertainment space.