Nesting...Part II

Okay, I promise it didn't take me a full month to get that abysmal mess in my kitchen cleared up...it just took me a month to get the pictures taken. *sheepish grin* So, without further ado, I hereby share my redeeming photos:

I'm pretty happy with how it all came together. We have been meaning to get that sun figure put up since we moved in three years ago. And I'm excited to finally have found a safe place for my skinny little shelf!

The curtains are the best part, I think. They're flat sheets that I bought at WalMart for $2.50 each! I got the idea from those lovely ladies at Drab to Fab. You just cut a slit on the back side of the thick hem (see their post for full instructions here). I want to dress them up with some brown & blue ribbon so my living room color scheme will flow into the kitchen, but I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, so that will have to wait. For now, I think they look great on their own. And I like that they're thin enough to still let in plenty of light without blinding my kids at lunch time. :)

Nesting...Part I

Confession: house cleaning is the bane of my existence. No, really! Especially with two little ones running about. As soon as I get something cleaned, it's a mess again in less than 5 minutes. (Just lucky, I guess!) Anyone who knows me--and not even very well--knows I don't profess to have any kind of house keeping prowess.

Over the last 3 weeks, however, my nesting instinct (and hubby Jon's) has kicked in full force. Normally, my nesting instinct appears as irritation at the general clutter and disorganized-ness of my abode and I shove piles of books and folded laundry aside to make room for a bassinet.

As I mentioned before, this time around we've been doing a lot of re-arranging. Today, we finally got the computer desk moved out of the kitchen and into the living room. I had hoped to be able to take it outside and paint all black to hide just how entirely hideoderous it is, but no such luck...it snowed off and on all day today. Guess we'll just live with the "ug" factor for now. Hopefully, having it located in the Center of Guest Reception will force me to keep it tidy. *knocking on fake computer desk wood*

Unfortunately, we remembered today that rearranging a space that's already a mess makes an even BIGGER mess. And so I present my shame to the world...

I swear it was only half this bad when we began today!

But we DID get the leaf in the table (and shattered a glass in the process). And look at the lovely print we FINALLY got on the wall! We've had that thing leaning up against the wall in the corner for over a year just waiting to be displayed.

The smaller, calmer part of myself is trying to keep the crazed "have to have this mess cleaned up even though it's almost 1 in the morning" part of myself from hyperventilating. I just have to keep telling her, "Rearranging makes things worse before they get better." Right? RIGHT?!

New-ish

My favorite word today is "new-ish." We've been doing a lot of rearranging in the house lately...our nesting instinct is revealing itself through this intense desire to move our furniture around. :) A couple of weeks ago, we rearranged our bedroom--took us 3 days and we're still only mostly done. Our project this week was our living room. The thing I love about changing the set up of these rooms is money...or our lack thereof. As my friend Jennifer said on Facebook the other day, "...it makes a room feel all clean and new-ish!" Great word.

We hadn't moved any of our furniture in the living room (save to make space for the tree at Christmastime) for three years. So you can imagine the amount of dusting and un-cluttering we had to do! But in the process, I rediscovered several decor items right when I was wishing I could go buy something just for some kind of change! My front bathroom feels completely different with the help of three small "new-ish" seaside prints on the wall. And I love the fact that I didn't have to buy new furniture (or finally get curtains to go over the blinds) to get that "new-ish" feeling in my living room. My too-thin purse-strings are heaving a sigh of relief. :)

Once the room is finally complete, I'll try to put up some pics...not to demonstrate it's new-ishness, but because that was a frickin' lot of work and, dang it, I'm going to show it off, man!

Just three of the new-old items I rediscovered. Don't ask me what the silver thing is...I have no idea. I just know it's vintage and it's silver...and a pain in the NECK to clean!