Big Lots SCORE!

So, i have a bad habit of pouring through nesting magazines looking at all of those gorgeous 'nobody could really live here' homes and thinking of ways to steal ideas.

I have found that not all ideas a) fit my budget b) are practical with small children in the house and c) please both the man and myself.

I have found ONE designer that I consistently try and copy - Linda Woodrum. You guys probably know her stuff - she's the diva behind the hgtv dream homes and their decor - CAN YOU SAY YUMMY??

I have saved every possible picture I can scour online only to try and see what i can do on the cheap - and that can be scaled down to my space.

This is pic of a dining room she did for the 2004 HGTV dream home. Be careful, that drool might mess up your shirt...


I love so many different things about this room, but ahhhh... i don't have the Ethan Allen DR set, or the beaded board, or those beautiful cream plates, or the wood floor....

I DO have the chocolate walls and ivory curtains!

Oh....wait - i have an old gym locker basket that has dead flowers in it on the porch....

I have candles....

oh, and I'VE GOT TONS of hydrangeas (another bad addiction).

And Big Lots had hurricanes on sale for $10....

What can i do....I can do this!


Ok, the chocolate is not that dark IRL - it has more caramel in it than it appears - and I my hurricanes aren't as feminine - mine were $10 people....and i had white saucers under mine, but in my small space it was too froufrou......i'm really really considering adding the beaded board, just not sold yet because the entire house is an open floor plan....

Oh well .... it was a good $10 update nonetheless!

Front Door Update - with pictures even!

Ok, so I've been MIA from the blog universe - but it hasn't been without good reason! I've been busy doing what i set out to do - recreate my own little house. Starting with the front entry. And it only cost $11.23. Even better!

All of you were in agreement that the door needed to be painted - the stark white had no character - and i couldn't have agreed more. So, without further delay - let's take one last look at what it looked like before:

it didn't look bad, it just looked builder boring. Here she is all dressed up in plum :) I just noticed that because i had no lights on the house - the side window looks painted too! LOL. It's just dark inside...it didn't disappear.



Here's a close up of the color:



Stay tuned - another budget redo tomorrow!

I really am easy to get along with.

Really. I mean SUPER EASY. So I kind of shocked MYSELF when i got fed up enough to march over to the neighbors on the left of me and give them a piece of my mind have a discussion about their 'encroachment' into my space. I even scoffed when Vance kindly suggested that he go and address the situation...oh no no no no. This is all me.

I am NOT one of THOSE neighbors that call the po-po when you're having party and noise level gets a little over the decibel limit at 3am or report you to Progress Energy because there's this one room in your house that has a grow light purplish light on 24/7 because you're competing with Lowes in the 'nursery biddnes'....uh uh. I AM however one of those neighbors that may ask for a litttle "somethin somethin' as a show of my appreciation for my discretion.

It all started with the voices that we heard coming out of our TV. Spanish voices. How rude, i don't speak Spanish so how the hell can i eavesdrop?? ...and this is WHEN THE TV WASN'T EVEN ON. It does not bode well when you significant other emails the FCC and says that exact thing and they email back and ask you what medication he's currently on. Yes, he did, and noooo they didn't, but i truly expect that kind of response. We are not losing our marbles. The voices started coming over our wireless phones when we were on calls too. All because my neighbor on the left erected a ham radio tower taller than both of our houses stacked on top of each other so that he could talk to his relatives in Puerto Rico.

And to add insult to injury - they have decided not to water their lawn. Ok. fair enough. but can you then put down SOMETHING - even white river rock - BUT SOMETHING. and treat those bugs that have now moved INTO MY LAWN. My yard is a 24 hour-all you can eat buffet for those pests. I like my yard with grass.

In the effort to keep up the fight - this is what i did yesterday. You can see I pulled weeds, while my kids....did not. Yes my driveway needs to be pressure washed - i'm getting to it. as soon as i buy a pressure washer pay somebody to do it.


This is my yard. See that big old southern oak in the far flower bed? That's it's branches on the left swooping down - can you just see a big white swing hanging there....? It's calling out for one.


This is my fight neighbor's yard. Our houses are identical. Minus the grass.



....just a little empathy folks, that's all i'm asking, and a little 6-6-6. Is that too much to ask?

Front Door Progress!

Sometimes things happen that are more liberating than you would have thought.

The listing for house expired. I decided not to renew.

It was beyond freeing. Not the constant rush to get out of the house for a showing - or the constant cleaning (don't tell anyone, but i'm beginnng to like that part.) But the 'not knowing'. of what kind of offer was coming, if it was a decent offer would it even appraise out for the buyer, would we even find a house that was worth the hassle that I could afford and not just hate that payment every month. Anyway. I'm good. I slept the entire night through.

I decided to work with the peach color on the house - mostly because that 3K to re-paint the house can go to other fun stuff - and while it annoys me - i think what i picked can work!

Here's the pallete. The peach stays. The cream trim (that i thought was white until i put a white and a cream against it) stays. The green closest to the peach is Homestead Resort Olive by Valspar - that would be the shutter color. The brown purple is Chocolate Raspberry by Valspar. The name alone makes it worth the purchase don't you think?


Here is the gross apartment doorhandle set. Isn't it just the most beautiful and welcoming thing ever??? yea, me too. So...keep scrolling for the choices to replace that beauty!


Now here is a nice shiny brass set that just sparkles against that purplish brown color. But...i'm not a brass fan...however, it IS pretty against that door color....beside that is a rubbed bronze set that I ADORE. However, it gets lost against that dark color, so i'm not probably going to choose it...BUT ISN'T JUST SO PRETTY??