A little crush on my happy chairs....

To further along my Home Makeover I headed from Princess Room to Dining Room.  I have  a cheap dining room table.  I will admit it.  I also have NO desire to upgrade to a better one.  Every day something disgusting, hazerdous, or just plain disasterous happens to that table.  It has been Sharpied, gouged with a fork repeatedly, finger painted, and had construction paper glued all over it.  AND that was all in the past two weeks.  No sir....no new table for me until my kiddos are all past the RUINING phase.

SOOO I decided to upholster them.   They were just plain wood before.  Now they are plain wood with a little KICK:)  Can you tell which one Em helped with????

She REALLY wanted to show off her creation--she cracks me up!!!!

I used THIS site to help with the actual upholstery.  BUT I did a few things differently.  I used oilcloth for starters.  I KNEW that there was NO point in covering my chairs with fabric.  That would have lasted about....2 minutes before they were totally ruined.  So OILCLOTH it was.  I ordered it from ETSY.  I used THE OILCLOTH ADDICT.  I would TOTALLY order from her again.  She was nice, quick, helpful AND the price was right. 
Another difference....It only took me about 1.5 yards of the 3 yards I ordered.  She used 6 yards of fabric for 6 chairs.  I only needed 1.5 for 3 chairs.  Not sure what the difference was.  I could do two across the width of the fabric.  SOOO now I have a giant leftover piece of oilcloth---now I need another project. 
ONE more difference, I used 2 inch foam instead of 1 inch foam.  SOOO I folded my corners like a present instead of with pleats.  I liked the way it looked....crisp and clean and square. 

 Although this took some time, it was pretty easy and I felt it had big pay off.  I LOVE THEM!!!  They make me happy.  Happy in the kitchen does not happen too often.....So I am going to savor it while it lasts.  And REALLY  doesn't the cute little chair look pretty happy too?? :)

Monday Makeover--Princess bed and a few odds and ends

 OK...so I have not been slacking on the whole 52 weeks of MAKE OVER thing...but I am a bit slacking on the whole....BLOGGING thing:)  Recently Emersyn started Pre-school, which means that Ethan and I have 2 1/2 hours to kill without our happy helper.  We have spent quite a bit of that time at thrift stores.  My first find....

A Princess Bed Tent for Emersyn's room.  I didn't plan on changing Em's room at the moment, but could not resist this beauty for just 8 bucks.  It has cute little butterflies on it (which just happened to be the EXACT color of her bedroom).  SHE LOVES IT!!!!!!! 

I find her in there playing with her babies or stuffed animals.   She uses it as a fort.  When she takes a nap, it is RAPUNZEL's tower...and I of course am Flynn Ryder. 

In the beginning she would play herself to sleep and  I would have to come SAVE her in the middle of the night because she would be all tangled up.  BUT now I guess she has figured out how to un-tangle herself...THANK GOODNESS!!!  Ok....moving on to Cool Find Number 2....

 This was another Goodwill find.  For 10 bucks I am SUPER excited to have some storage in her room.  Clearly I have not figured out WHAT to store yet, but I am working on that.  AGAIN....what are the odds that the tubs would EXACTLY match her bedroom????  I found the tent and the shelf in the same day...and I am not gonna lie I was PRETTY PROUD OF MYSELF!!!
The next to additions to her room have been on my TO-DO list for about...A YEAR!!!  I even had the stuff to make-over, just not the time, energy, or motivation.  BUT once one thing gets up-graded, it is best to keep the ball rolling.  SO I took this little shelf I found at Value Village for 5 dollars and gave it a face lift. 

 I thought it had potential...although the bright drawers....not a fan.  SOO I sanded it and spray painted it all white.  Then I used some of the leftover paint from her walls to paint the knobs.  AND VOILA....a cute little shelf for all of her hair stuff.  It is perfect for holding clips and rubberbands.  And I can imagine that SOME DAY she can put her little jewelry stuff or something in it.  Kinda Fun!!

 THEN....I took this frame from Value Village (2 bucks) and took out the glass and lovely mountain scene.

 I spray painted the frame, stapled chicken wire to the back of the frame (there are tutorials ALL over the web for the how too), and added the bows ( I probably needed a bigger frame--haha!!).  I just wanna add that I used my BRAND NEW staple gun, which is MY FIRST OFFICIAL TOOL.  I have never had a tool of my own, so this is not borrowed from the MAN OF THE HOUSE....IT IS MINE!!!  I love that.  And another side-note...I used the power sander ALL BY MYSELF to sand the shelves.  YEP....pretty proud of myself!!!  I know SOME women are all independent and use power tools and stuff...Not Me.  But I am getting there...one NON-hand removing tool at a time:)

Here is the new HAIR STATION....Much better than the huge pile of junk that used to reside on the top of her dresser!!

And since the REAL reason for my blog is to remember this time of my life and the lives of my kiddos, I am gonna take a quick tour of Emersyn's room as it is right now.  Go ahead and blog hop somewhere else if you like. 
Her dresser area is in one corner.  We found the dresser on Craigslist and Todd did some touch up painting to it.  I love that it is kinda throw back vintage looking---although it is actually from Target (shhhh).  
The shelves I got from Grandma June before Emersyn was born.  She thought I might find a use for them....yes please.  I painted them and think they are kinda cute and girlie.  The 2 vintage signs and the cute soap box were a gift for Baby Girl when she was born (Thanks Paula).  The hanging signs were made by my Bobbie and have cute little vinyl words on them.  The tiny ceramic piggies were found by Russ  and given to us (since anyone who knows me AT ALL knows I have a thing for piggies).  Next are Em's first little baby shoes--I cannot make myself pack them up.  AND LAST  are her cute little Birthday Girls.  One for each of her 3 birthdays and given to her by Grandma Marilee. 

 Next to her bed is her night stand.  I painted this when I was pregnant with her.  This night stand was next to my bed MY WHOLE LIFE.  I stacked my books under it and stashed my treasures (and journal) in the little drawer.  I KNEW she needed it too.  So I sanded off the ugly dark brown paint and replaced the old school gold knob with a pretty flower.

 Ballerina Piggy bank came from Marcie and has already been emptied once into a savings account---woop woop!!!!!  The little girl lamp was given to us by my Aunt Brenda.  It belonged to my cousin Jamie and was given to her by my Grandma Louise.  My Grandma painted it for her and she had had it in HER room for her whole life.  She kept it to pass to her daughter, but since she doesn't have any children, she wanted Emersyn to have it.  I actually have the SAME lamp, but painted in different colors.  Mine was given to me by MY Grandma June and it resides up stairs in my craft room.  They both mean more to me than I can express and I LOVE that Emersyn gets to grow up with a piece of her Great Grandmas.   
MOVING ON.   The ugly star is Emersyn's music box.  As a baby she was the worst sleeper EVER.  This music plays for EVERY nap, EVERY bed time, AND EVERY nightmare---night waking---quiet time.  I am sure she can now go to sleep without it, but I don't wanna find out. 

Phewww....that about sums it up.  There are a few more changes I would like to add to Emersyn's room to make it a little more BIG GIRL.  But for now we are pretty happy with the results:)

Success!!

I just have to start off by saying.....I DISTRESSED SOMETHING!!!  I have been wanting to mess up some good stuff for A LONG TIME.  But it really isn't the style of my house.  I decided WHAT THE HECK....and did it anyway.  AND (drumroll) I LOVE how it looks in my house.  Even a modern clean look works with my NEW VINTAGE TRAY. 

I found this KITTY tray at Value Village.  AND as much as I DOOOO love kitties....I did not love the whole kitty cat, country blue, hearted up vibe.  Cool if that is your thing I guess...

I painted and distressed and fell in love.  Like when I first saw it I almost asked it to marry me...BUT then I decided Todd would not wanna be a Sister Tray....or whatever that would make him, so I decided to just hug it and give it a little space.  FOR NOW:)

And for now it is sitting on my happy  (and cleaned off for once) counter with my happy pink flowers, RIGHT above my happy little organized JUNK DRAWERS.  AND that makes me

VERY HAPPY!!!

Makeover Monday-- 1 down, 51 to go

I have about A MILLION half done projects going on in my house right now.  SERIOUSLY.  I am that person who is UN-linear.  Most people would attack their house one room or project at a time.  NOT ME!!!  I jumped in and attacked EVERTHING in my house.  Now I have a FEW organized areas amongst A LOT of chaos.  My completions so far are pretty boring and have not made ANY impact on the overall look of my house, but they have made me FEEL better, so that is what counts I guess. 

To start off, I have been reading multiple books on cleaning and organization strategies...

 and then I found a 21 days to getting organized challenge....

and sooooo a lot of what I did this weekend was CLEANING and ORGANIZING.  Not fun for me...not really too fun for you either.  BUT here it is. 

PER the 21 day challenge I started with JUNK DRAWER.  Only problem....I have about 5 junk drawers in my house.  I tackled 3.
PER Unstuff Your Life, EVERTHING NEEDS A HOME AND LIKE THINGS SHOULD BE WITH LIKE THINGS.  I have always believed this, but needed it to hit me over the head.  SOOO I am also trying to find PERMANENT places for all of my STUFF.
PER...something else I read somewhere....take before and after pictures so that you can look at them and be embarressed and NEVER wanna go back to that ugliness.  I am going one step further and showing YOU ALL the ugliness so that I will be even more MORTIFIED and never let my drawers get so *&%! out of control. 
HERE GOES....

Junk Drawer #1 BEFORE

After: I stole some trays from my bathroom drawers (which are coming up soon on the list) and divided up the nonsense. 

BEFORE:

After:  Mostly I had to put the 1 thousand things that didn't belong in there in THEIR homes and then the drawer was a snap to clean up.  I am still thinking about dividers, but good for now.

Before:

After: 90% of the crap went in the trash. Now I have phone numbers and addresses.  I should really get more friends so I have enough numbers to fill the drawer back up:)

I also tackled THIS ugly mail holder and got it all cleaned out and pretty again, but have not figured out my NEW HOME for the mail yet....working on that one still:)

Pretty boring.  I hear ya. I WOULD totally recommend these 2 books if you are looking to de-clutter.  They are not start to finish reads, but skim and skip through books.  I LOVE people giving me ideas for keeping the crap chaos under control.  ANYWAY....

 I hope to have some of the fun stuff finished up SOON.  On the half done list....3 spray painting projects, 1 Ana White wood project, and creating a new office area in my bedroom.  BUT until I get off my bum and off PINTEREST.....

Operation 52

I am stuck in a rut.  A BIG HUGE disorganized BLAH rut.  Every day I wake up and my house is....still there.  Which is good I guess.  It would sure suck if it were gone.  BUT sometimes I feel like I am living in a rental house.  Like my house is a temporary place of residence that I have just borrowed for a while.  I HATE THAT!!  I have lived in my house for 5 years.  IT SHOULD FEEL LIKE ME.....right???  Well it doen't.  Not REALLY.  A lot has changed around here in 5 years.  I have become a TOTALLY different person.  BUT my house is still a busy teacher with deadlines and papers to correct and junk piled in the closet from when she moved in.  SOOOO  I decided I am ready for a makeover....

My house is fine.  It is a nice little "mousy brown haired mommy lady."  But it WANTS to be a "pretty red-head with nice white teeth and a splash of red lipstick."  I am sure on the inside this lady(who I graciously borrowed from google images) WAS a red head.  She just needed to get in touch with that part of her personality.  I want MY house to get more in touch with MY personality.  SOOO I decided to put it in writing.  No more.....when I get a chance....OR....someday I would love to.....TODAY I am starting to change things around here. 

I am giving myself ONE year....52 weeks to make my house into the home I want it to be.  If I can create a human being in 40 weeks, I should darn well be able to re-vamp 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and.....well an entire house.

  Since I have officially OUTED myself, I will actually follow through. That is the madness behind my....madness.    52 projects....52 changes...some big....some small....but all of them to make my house JUST THE WAY I WANT IT.  Cleaner. Greener. and MORE JESSICA!!!

Next September you will walk into my house (preferably only those who actually know me please) and say...."wow that REALLY looks like you (me)!!!"  I will be updating my progress here for all to see.  The GOOD.  The BAD.  And the Worse than bad.  I am not going for a remodel or overhaul, just AHHHHHHH!!! (the sound you make when you get into a nice warm shower at the end of the day....not the sound you make when you drop the milk jug on the floor without the lid on it). 

Operation 52 is in full swing starting tomorrow. 

 A new month....A new start......and a new LOVE (fingers crossed)!!!