Pretty flowers...

Recently we had an anniversary and my husband bought me beautiful white roses. So pretty I just had to post them.

I just love that guy. He's still so sweet after 11 years.

Spring Cleaning the loft

This area is my 11 year old daughter's play room and a basic catch all for office-y type things. I used to have a desk up here for the computer until we sold it (I had before pics but can't seem to find them now). But here's what it's looked like pretty much since I sold the desk:

It's just a hot mess.A bunch of "stuff" thrown up there that needs to be organized. And I've been telling myself that I need to get more bookcases. I wanted a more library-esque feel with bookshelves all over the walls. Here are some examples of the whole bookshelf thing (I can't have built-ins but I can dream):

 

 I was holding off on buying bookcases because of one reason or another (okay, truth is -I'm cheap-don't tell anyone). But my one itsy-bitsy bookshelf has needed help. Here's what it looked like:

My books were overflowing into other areas and I needed more room for them. Plus, there was only a tiny bookshelf for my daughter's books which was too small for her stuff as well. 

Luckily, God loves me (Okay, okay, He loves you too but lets pretend he plays favorites and I was it the other day). I was in the right place, at the right time, to snag 2 free bookcases when my workplace got rid of a bunch of stuff. YEA ME!

So, I loaded them up and brought them home. And since I had to rearrange, organize and clean pretty much everything in the room I figured, "Hey, why not paint this room while you're at it?" So, I did (with the help of my daughter. Child labor = free!).

But first I had a lot of organizing to do so I tried as best I could to purge the loft and clean. Here's what it looked like in the middle of it all:

It's gotta get worse before it gets better. See all those books hanging out? They needed a place to live.

So, after organizing, painting, and lugging 2 bookcases upstairs, we ended up with this:

Okay, it's still got a long way to go. But the walls are painted and the bookshelves are there shelving their books like good little guys and that ugly curtain is down and everything is more organized. Here are the two (free!) bookshelves I got:

Look at how much space I have now! And I still have the other bookshelf too so I can use that as well. None of them match but I was thinking about scrapbook papering the backs to give them a more unified feel and to add a little more pretty to them (rather than the glaringly obvious fake cardboard backing). 

There is still more I think I could do to tweak the room (add curtains, accessorize a little better) but for now I'm just pleased to see so many bare surfaces after living with this:

It's nice to see this:

Here's a better look at the color:

Okay, that's a crappy look at the color. What can I say? My camera sucks. But the color is Dappled Gray (Walmart) which I had color matched in Behr's paint/primer in one. I know, it looks white. But it isn't. It's a very sublte blue/gray. 

It's been a long journey and I am very happy with the results. Before:

After:

But I will continue to decorate. And I'm more than thrilled at my freebies!

IT'S ALIIIIIVE..........

I feel like Dr. Frankenstein. Why you may ask? Because I've taken these two hands...

Okay, not these two hands-
those hands are just some random model's hands. I didn't have the inclination ability to take a picture of my own hands so I just stole borrowed these from the almighty web. If you want a true sense of this story picture my hands chubbier, with half bitten nails, and throw in some dry skin for good measure. There you have it. Now you're on board with this story. I took my own two hands and created something glorious.

So, what did I create? Okay, it wasn't an inanimate monster brought to life but, I'm proud of it none the less.
I made my first batch of bread.

And when I say bread, I don't mean I hooked up a bread machine to churn things out (I have no idea how bread machines work). I used my oven and my hands and that's it.

I didn't have the courage until I read this book,  Artisan Bread In Five Minutes A Day.

I first read about it on the Nester's Blog. I checked it out at my local library (free!) and set to work.
And with only flour, water, salt, yeast, and an oven-I made bread.

See?

That is my trial loaf. It was awesome. I felt so...empowered. I'm not one for baking bread but now I feel all Little-House-On-the-Prairie-like. Like if I was somehow thrown back into that time period I could survive (never mind the lack of electricity, plumbing, refrigerators, etc.).

I know, its a little anti-climactic for all you "I've been baking bread since I was 5 years old in my e-z bake oven" people. But I was am so proud of myself.
I took loads of pictures and my husband said it turned out great! It was very dense like sourdough and was yummy with some butter slathered on top.
Okay, more pics.

I even made 2 extra loaves I was feeling so enraptured with my baking skills. The cool thing about this is that you can make a big batch and refrigerate it for up to 2 weeks. So, fresh bread any night of the week! And then when that's done just make another batch on the weekend. YEA!

 So, there it is. My masterpiece. My creation. My own two hands.

IKEA, I *heart* thee...

When Ikea first moved to my city I went there constantly. I'd never been to Ikea before (none near me in Oklahoma) and everything was so inexpensive and the showrooms were so inspirational and.... I went there all the time.

I hadn't been in awhile so I decided to pop in for a bit. My favorite area is the AS-IS section. I can get great deals there for pennies. When I was there I got these baskets for only 3.00 each (reg 7.00 I think):

I used them to organize my medicine and other toiletries in the master bath.

Then I went over and just fell in love with these pillow covers...so springy!

Very reminiscent of Pottery Barn to me. Like these I just found on their site:

Except mine cost 5.00 a piece while theirs were 20.00 each. Yea!

Ikea keeps me in pretty decor while not breaking my budget.

Hoarding...

Last night we watched an episode of House which featured a woman who was a hoarder. It was horrible.I got hives just watching the show.

And then I felt awesome about myself because I said to myself, "my house doesn't look that bad" (on most days). And I was proud that I had some anal retentive genes that cancelled out my lazy genes and makes me organize and clean out junk. And then I felt ashamed that I was judging another person just to make myself feel better about my life and laziness (like, "at least I'm not that bad"). And then I breathed a sigh of relief when the commercial came on and I remembered that this was just a show and I shouldn't feel bad about judging a fictional character. And then I walked to the kitchen to get a drink of water and passed this:

And then felt bad all over again. Vicious cycle.

This is our typical dumping ground for any junk we have when walking in the door. I'm sure everyone has those spots. Some area where all the crap lands when you don't want to put it away right at that moment.
Junk mail, dishes, lunch box, makeup case, whatevs!

Remember when my great friend gave me all that stuff from her garage sale?
Well, I knew just what I was gonna do with this thing when I saw it:

It will help control that hot mess you see above (or that's the idea anyway).

First, I wasn't feeling the lighthouse look so I decided to paint the organizer a cheerful green. I started by sanding the sides to remove most of the dark colors since the lime green I was going with would make them show through:

And I painted it in about 7 minutes.

I used a free sample I got from Glidden called Spring Leaf. It was a pretty celadon color.
Here it is after it dried:

And the bar after I cleaned everything off and sorted, threw away, etc. all the junk and used the organizer:

Much better. Still junk but more organized. Thankfully.