my (office) shame.

well, i think i've pretty much shied away from giving y'all a look at my home office for the past 3 years. out of shame.

it still confounds me. look at this mess. and the boxes behind me aren't any prettier. but when i'm done with my work day i sort of just want to run downstairs. you know?

so tell me, what would you do to make this room better? (you know, other than starting completely from scratch.)

"i have one thing to say... sashay, chante!"

turn on your heartlight!

master bedroom

bet that title brings back some memories, huh? well, if you're as old as i am that is. how many times did you see e.t. in the theaters?

i'm in the process of gathering up a few new lights to put up in ye ole house and thought it might be fun to pull some pictures together so you can see all of the fixtures together. i get SO MANY nice comments/ compliments from visitors, first-timers and repeaters, about my "collection".

what do you think?

entry hall
(it doesn't look this creepy usually! not sure where that red glow is coming from.)

dining room

family room

family room

home office

soon to be in the guest bedroom

and two of these soon to make their debut in the kitchen

and, now, sing along with me and neil. :)

easy peasy lemon squeezy lighting project.

lighting pwn!

so cute, right? i can't thank nicole at parlour enough for inspiring me to make this adorable pendant light!

it was about as easy as it gets - and super cheap too. here's what you need if you want one yourself. gather up:

1. single light pendant (like this one at home depot)
2. paper lantern - i used the 20" version from pier 1
3. coffee filters. i used about 600 for mine. you can get them on the cheap at amazon
4. your trusty glue gun and lots of glue sticks. i hadn't used mine since my sorority days - brought back some memories, i tell ya! (" i am a sigma kappa girl, sigma girl. i wear a pin of gold and pearls, gold and pearls...")

and then you just start gluing. and gluing. and gluing. put a dab on the bottom of each filter like so:


and place the dots of glue veryclosetogether, like this:


about half way...


and DONE!


now i just have to call my electrician. AGAIN. i'll post a photo when it's up in the guest room. until then, back to the dreaded kitchen cabinets...

kitchen update.

nothing much to say, but here's a preview of what the kitchen might look like when it is done. (and please ignore the command strips holding the bin pull in place - i was still figuring out where i wanted it! classy as always...)

um... YES!

i have been on the hunt for the right lighting for my guest room for a LOOOOONG time now. it's the only room left with one of those boob lamps that were *everywhere* in the house. and, my dear readers, all of you know how much i love a sassy light fixture!

here's what the guest bedroom looks like now. i love it, except for that ding-dang light!

so yesterday, as i was surfing some of my favorite site and following all kinds of links, i found this.
nichole at parlor: you. complete. me. (see more of her lovely dining room and this project here.)

i think a big, fluffy cloud is just what the guest bedroom needs. so, off to pier 1 i go for a paper lantern and then safeway for 1000 coffee filters... (yes, i DO love to torture myself.)

and here's one of my favorite tracks from my college days to celebrate. wheeeee!

so... good news and bad news on the kitchen update.

i've made a TEENY bit of progress (i'm attacking the work a section at a time so i don't get overwhelmed) and it's clear that this is a great product.

however, it's also clear that it's going to take 4-5 coats of paint (not including top coat) to cover the dark cabinets.

so it's going to be a little while before i can show you how this turns out. but in the meantime i will try to post some photos of the updates to the dining room, family room and office.

keeping busy!

oh, cr*p.

so, while there are many, many, MANY projects still on my list for this here ol' house, for the most part i do like it in it's current state.

the only real exception is the kitchen. while we are extremely lucky that it had been upgraded for modern-day life, it is clear that it was done without any thought about how it would integrate with the rest of the house.

remember, our house was built sometime around 1865-1880, so THIS (seen here on one of our walk-throughs in 2009) is not what i would have chosen to do with the kitchen.



so, now, i'm finally going to go for it. cabinet transformations in "pure white" and vintage hardware are at the ready - and i am steeling myself for several weeks of painting and frustration. i'll tell you later if it was actually worth the effort!

wish me luck!