A Soft Spot

We have a new soft spot in our bedroom, and I got it for a deal. Oh how I love a deal! Did you know that Lowe's clearance price is not necessarily their final price? That's right. If you see one of those little yellow stickers, you can often talk them down from that price. I was looking for a rug to replace the one I had Craigslisted because it didn't really match. Brennan and I were walking through Lowe's one afternoon, passing time and giving him a chance to practice his driving skills, when I spotted this deal. It was rolled up by the other area rugs but had a hold ticket on it. The ticket had a clearance price, and an even better price that someone had haggled. It also said that the rug would be picked up by, let's say, Mary at 5 p.m. It was a few minutes after 5. I asked a worker if it was really still on hold and they said yes. The deal Mary had haggled was the same amount I had sold the other rug for, and it was the exact rug Mike and I had just talked about looking for. I really felt like this was suppose to be my rug. For a second I considered being Mary and walking out with the rug, but soon decided better of it. A couple of days later I decided to stop back by just to check. The rug was still standing there, just waiting for me. After talking to a couple of Lowe's associates, it was mine. Sorry Mary, I hope you didn't come back looking for the rug. But thanks for working the great deal! The plush cream shag is a great contrast to the brown mingled concrete floors. My feet welcome that luxury when they hit the floor each morning.

Another One Bites the Dust

The dust is cleared from our master bathroom. It's still small, it's still not perfect, but it is a little more stylish I think. I wish I could find the before, before pictures. When we moved into the house this bath had a short brown toilet, a dingy pedestal sink, a Hollywood style light fixture, a brown blind, and some type of medicine cabinet (I actually don't remember it). To be able to close on the house, we had to have a few repairs done in this bathroom. At that time we added a new toilet, sink and vanity, and painted. That was about a week before we discovered the problems in the master bedroom, and evacuated this whole area for two years. Here is how it rested for those two years:

This go around we put in new flooring, new lights, a mirror, a white blind, and a linen cabinet to replace a laminate one that was in a little nook. I also made a white curtain to hang in front of the shower doors since they are not my favorite. I had plans to take out this shower and the little wall beside it. It would have been replaced with a tile shower and frameless glass enclosure. I think that would really open up the room. Unfortunately, those glass enclosures are a little too pricey for the budget right now. We opted to keep the shower as is, and come back to this room once again later on. It's a little frustrating, but then I just remind myself that I have my dream job right now. It pays even less than my previous dream job, but is a once in a lifetime opportunity so these sacrifices are worth it. Who knows, by the next time we work on this bath we may have an even better plan. I'm pretty pleased with our spruce up. The chandelier is by far my favorite part. I think it turned this bathroom into a sweet little Cinderella.

Sources:
Paint: Martha Stewart Rainwater mixed in Valspar Kitchen and Bath paint
Vanity: Home Depot
Storage Tower: Target
Mirror, Mirror Light, Faucet, Toilet: Lowes
Towels: T. J. Maxx
Chandelier: Sweet Annie's Antiques
Framed Print: vintage from my great aunt

A Well Feathered Nest

While I've been working to improve our nest, another little lady has been busy decorating hers as well! She also likes vintage finds, and fun patterns apparently.

A robin has built a nest right outside our dining room window, and right by the back steps. She has become pretty content with our coming and going, and I like to check in on her as we go through the day. Today I noticed her little piece of polka dot fabric. Quite the classy nest I'd say!

Hanging Around

Finally, a little update of the bedroom! We have moved in, and are still getting everything into place. One of the first accessories I added were window treatments.

I knew these were going to add a little excitement and drama that I was looking for. I needed ten panels to cover five windows, so something economical was a must. I also needed them to be long since the ceilings are 9 feet, and I'm a big fan of hanging any window treatment high to expand the space. After an unsuccessful trip to Sir's Fabric, I decided to give paint drop clothes a try. I had seen the idea around Pinterest and liked the look. They have the look of linen, but at a fraction of the cost.

I bought 6' x 9' panels for about $10 each. These were some of the easiest panels I've ever done. The drop clothes are already hemmed, so I just made a rod pocket and was done. You could skip the sewing all together and just use rings with clips. I'm very happy with how they turned out.

I did learn a few things about drop clothes in this process. First, the clothes sold at Home Depot do not have seams through them. The first one I bought at Lowes had a seam running horizontally through it. (Sorry Lowes--I like you for most things.) Second, they are not exactly 6' x 9'. They turned out to be a little smaller in reality. If you have 8 ft. ceilings this shouldn't be a problem at all. I had two that were a little short, but because I was using a wire across the bay window that didn't need a very big rod pocket it worked out ok. Third, as I had already read they do wrinkle a lot. I washed and dried them before sewing in case they shrank. I actually kind of like the wrinkles and don't plan to get them all out. Last, they are just meant to be drop clothes so they were not perfect. One edge was a little ragged, and some of the hemmed edges were a little rough. Overall, I'm fine with all of this and plan to use them for other projects I think.

There's more to come on the bedroom, once I get all the tools put away and maybe a new light or two up.

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone  had a blessed Easter! We had a nice family weekend. Saturday morning Brennan and I went to Mom's church for a treasure and egg hunt. They had stations telling the story of Jesus life, death, and resurrection. Brennan liked hammering the cross.

Then the children hunted eggs and had lunch. Brennan was really more into playing than hunting eggs.

Sunday morning he was excited to find his Easter basket. We hadn't talked much about the Easter bunny, and I don't think he ever really understood why I kept saying a bunny had come but he didn't see him. He did really like his new Victor and Harold. Harold now flies around our house saying,"No sign of Thomas!" 

After some play time, we headed to church with Mom. Brennan doesn't go into big church with us anymore, so it had been a while since he had a reason to sit quietly. We had talked a lot about how he would need to stay in his place and be quiet. He was really excited to go to Nonna's church and said he would be good. Well, overall he did pretty good, but not before he made his presence known. During the prayer request, at a time when no one else was saying a word, Brennan dropped his Hiro train and it went under the pew in front of us. He loudly exclaimed, "OH NO!" Everyone laughed, which he of course thought was great! His little personality is just bursting out these days. It's not something I want to quench in the least, but we might need to practice quiet times a little more often.

We had lunch with Mom and Dad, all took naps, and then played outside and planted some flowers. Overall it was a great weekend of celebration.