Don't Judge Me or my Laundry Room

DISCLAIMER:  We have no garage, no attic, no basement and our 1955 has the teeniest closets you could ever imagine.  

OK, now that I gave you all that information, please don't judge me.  This is like an episode of the show hoarders and messy ones at that.  This, my friends, is my laundry room. It is a catch all for everything, it holds our washer, dryer, cleaning supplies, linens, air drying clothes, clothes to iron, extra folding chairs, extra stools, luggage, poker table (never used), folding tables, vacuums, crafts, wrapping supplies, purses, (yes, you read that right), you name it, it's in there.  I tend to keep my house on the neat side, no clutter, simple decor, so everything that has no where to go, gets dumped in here.  It is the most embarrassing room in our house.  I never thought I would have one of those pretty laundry rooms.  I actually laugh when I see them.

Considering that I no longer had access to the closet inside my laundry room, I decided to just organize a bit.  I took all the stuff that was blocking the passage to the closet out of there.

  I semi organized the closet and somehow found inspiration. 

I have decided to make myself a pretty laundry room.  It will never be like the ones you see out there in blog land (maybe I will search for some and post them, so you can laugh at mine), but at least one that is not a disgusting, hoarding pig sty.  I found some boxes at Target in black and white.  My laundry room is off of my black and white office, I figured I would keep the trend.

It's a project in the works.  It will take some time. Really, it's not going to be a major transformation, I am way to lazy to paint the room and that itself is a mistake...but oh well.  Stay tuned.

P.S. I promise I am not a messy person.  (apparently, I am a secret mess in the rooms/drawers that no one can see)

My Sister's Vintage Light

My sister that lives in New York sent me these really cool pictures.  They bought this amazing vintage light that is just perfect for their loft. 

This next picture is a pretty cool shot of her husband installing the wiring for the lamp.  I love the shadows that are cast on him.

This last picture is one I took when I went up to visit in October. Her place is full of amazing vintage pieces and the ecclectic style matches them perfectly.  

I want to go and visit them soon and maybe check out some of these shops. What do you think?

Easter Frame

We will be hosting Easter brunch this year, so I'm trying to get some decorations together. I've never decorated for Easter before.  I'm loving the pastels and pretty colors.  I have some ideas in mind and worked on a couple of things over the weekend.  This is a simple change to my Copycat Valentine's.  I found these eggs at the Dollar Tree and just glued them to white card stock and done. Minutes.

Here's my Valentine's one for you to remember.

Here's the originator of the idea and my total inspiration, Blooming Homestead. 

Quick and easy. I love it.





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Hanging in the Sun

Due to the Birthday festivities, I had to figure out how to get my sunburst mirror hung (See tutorial here).  I've been wanting to fix up my house for spring and figured what is better than some sun in the room. We hung it last weekend and about an hour into it,  and the mirror fell.  We had some friends over and we were talking about my project, and it just fell, the timing was hilarious.  Before reattaching the mirror, I decided to give a coat of spray polyurethane to protect it. I love the richness it added to the wood. I went to Home Depot and bought mirror mastic, it's kind of like liquid nails.  My hubby just put a bunch of it on the back of the mirror and we just pressed it onto the wood shims and placed 4 really heavy books on it overnight.  It's been up since Friday and it seems to be holding up well.

My house has very limited wall space.  It's a very open layout and we have a bunch of windows and french doors.  When we redid our family room we just changed up the accessories on these wood blocks from West Elm. They have held candles, candle holders, and now my spray painted owl.  I've been a little over this corner, but really didn't have anything to put up.  So here comes in my sunburst mirror.  Our TV console is very modern (I'd love to replace this with some cool mid century piece, but that's not happening), which needs to be toned down a bit.  I thought this rustic mirror would be perfect.  The mirror is perfectly centered on the shims (I just measured). In the pictures it looks like it's hanging low. 

I've also been playing around with my accessories a bit.  I hear all this talk about vignettes, and I realize I have no talent for that! Any suggestions?  So what do you think of my new sunburst mirror?

Celebrating!

Fancy Flours

I will be celebrating my 34th Birthday this weekend. No projects for me, just fun!

I hope you have a great weekend.

Another Bench Makeover

My friend asked me to help salvage this bench for her.  It belonged to her father-in-law and she really wanted something of his in her home. Something that her children could use and know that it belonged to their grandfather. Although, it's a piano bench makeover, it really won't be used as one.  I was so excited to be able to help her and knew exactly where I wanted to go with it.  She has 2 girls and a boy all under 4.  I figured I stay neutral with the colors, although it will most likely be for the girls vanity in the bathroom.  Here it is when she dropped it off for me.  It had a horrible wine color vinyl on top and the bench had definitely seen better days.  It was pretty banged up.  I stripped it, repaired the holes, sanded it, and applied three coats of stain, and 2 of polyurethane.  

I found the fabric at Joann's Fabric and with the 40% coupon I paid about $5.00 for it.  I can't wait for her to see the bench (I hope she's reading this post).  I hope the kids will love it and use it for a long time to come.  Let's see how the fabric holds up.







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Life, Crafts, and Whatever Guest Post

I am so excited to be doing a guest post over at Life, Crafts, and Whatever.  I'll be sharing some of my favorite projects and some questions about me and Jen will be here doing the same!

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Hey JandJ readers! I'm super excited to be here, guest posting today. I mean, I heart this blog. I know I wasn't the only one drooling over her zebra print bench, right? And I know no matter what Jeanne posts, I'm going to add another thing to the "Things I totally gotta jack/copy/steal get inspiration from" mental check list. But since you're already reading her blog, you already know she's awesome. So let's talk about me, shall we?

My blog is called Life, Crafts and Whatever. The title is pretty much what you'll find there. Random ramblings, family stuff, crafts, whatever. My biggest successes to date?

My Paint Chip Wall Art

My UFC Subway Art Pillow

Rather than do a tutorial, we decided to shake things up and do a little Q&A. Cause you are dying to know more about little ole me, right? (Just say yes, it makes things easier.)

What is your biggest fear/phobia?  yeah, besides the normal ones (being alone, something bad happening to my loved ones, spontaneous combustion, blah blah blah), I'm going to have to go with locusts. Like, seriously. Make me scream like a little girl and run in the other direction. I would totally post a pic, but then I'd have nightmares tonight, and no one wants that. I used to have a chameleon, and one day I fed him a locust I caught in a field. And he bit off the head, and the body continued to buzz and WALK AROUND. So now I'm terrified of them. Snakes? No problem. Clowns? Bring it on. Locusts. Eek. Heebie jeebies.

Were you named after anyone?  Nope. Two doctors said I was going to be a boy, but my mom said I was going to be a girl, and she was going to name me Jessica. Well, my mom's friend was also pregnant and went into labor/delivered the day before I was born. And she stole my mother's baby name. So Jessica became Jennifer at the last minute.

Who would you choose to play you in a movie? Ummm, if the movie is about me, and I'm supposed to be sweet and a-freaking-dorable? Then Zooey Deschanel.

 If my character is supposed to be a super hot bombshell? Then Mila Kunis. Seriously, stunning.

What three people, dead or alive, would you invite to a dinner party? First would be Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. I loved that show, and actually cried when he died. Yeah, I just said that. But his love for animals was inspiring, and I loved the relationship he had with his wife. Plus, I dig slightly eccentric, crazy people. So him, and Tom Hanks, my favorite actor. And then my grandmother, because she's awesome. And then we'd go get another tattoo when we were finished. Seriously, she's a whole bunch of awesome. Grandama = Awesomesauce.

Why did you start blogging? I've been long time blog stalker. I love to craft, and hubby kept telling me to share my crap crafts with Blogland and start my own blog. So voila! I've "met" some really cool people throughout it. Purdy awesome.

Any crafts you want to learn/wish you were better at? I wish I knew how to crochet/knit. I can do the basic stuff, crochet wise. But it takes me forever, and my stitches aren't even, and I get irritated and never finish, and then I decide that crocheting sucks. Happens every time.

So thank you, dear Jeanne, for allowing me to take over your blog today! I hope you'll stop by my blog for a visit. Cause seriously, that'd be awesome. Like cheesecake and warm fuzzies awesome.

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OK, seriously you need to go over there.  I love how real and really funny Jen is. I find myself thinking so many of the things she writes about, but have no way/or the guts to write them down. You gotta love that! Don't even get me started on the creativity of this girl. Who would think that paint chips could look like that. Thank you so much Jen, I loved having you here.

PS...Some of you have gotten a sneak peak of this post like two times. I'm not sure what I'm doing. Oops. I'm trying to schedule my post for the morning so I don't have to wake up so early and I think I'm doing something wrong. What a mess.

New/Old End Table

A couple of weeks ago, Camilla from First Lady of the House and I, did a blog swap. Here's what I posted about, my new to me end table.

When I fixed up my family room, I {forgot} to post what was at the end of my couch.  I had this leather bin from Target full of magazines for a while.  I bought this tray to place on the ottoman when guests come over to watch a game, you know, for chips, dip, etc. One day, it found a home on top of the bin and hence, my end table. 

The red you see there are some leftover Christmas presents.  Yes, I realize it's March, I'm working on it.

Here's a peak inside. 

A couple of weeks ago, my friend gifted me some really cool mid century pieces. I fell in love with this table and knew the perfect spot for it. I kept the accessories simple, with this round vase from Goodwill and some magazines.  

I'm loving my new look.  Quite a difference, huh?

Oh, and since my post with Camilla, I actually distributed those Christmas gifts.  Yay!

Week-End Finds

My sister and I went to a couple of garage sales on Saturday on the way to West Elm.  Although on Spring Break last week, I really didn't make it out to the thrift stores.  I spent a lot of time cleaning out closets in my house and figured, if I'm trying to simplify my life, I don't need any more junk.  I couldn't pass up this stool for $2.00 at a garage sale. I know, I know, another stool/bench. I realize that it's a little weird, but it's so not intentional, I promise.  I have to figure out what I'm going to do with this one.

So just to add to the stool mania in my house, I found these in my laundry room.  Does that count as a "found object"?  When I show you pictures of my laundry room, you will understand my question.  These stools were bought as temporary stools for our kitchen when we first did our kitchen.  It took me a while to find the perfect white, modern stools back 5-6 years ago.  Our kitchen island only has room for 2 stools and we keep these around for when guests come over to add around the island for casual pre meal conversation.  They've come in very handy.

 However, they are in horrible shape and do not match my kitchen at all. 

So that's nothing a can of spray paint can't fix.  I gave them a very light sanding, used primer, and white spray paint to finish it off. 

 Major difference.

I have a question for all you spray paint experts out there, the top of the stools ended up looking uneven and rough, what am I doing wrong?