12 Things on the 12th

Not to be pretentious or anything...but I thought I'd share 12 things about myself...on the 12th.

You may already know these, but you may not.

Stick around and see.

1.  My favorite color (s) are red and turquoise.  Preferably together.

 2.  I try to wear a necklace everyday...and I have alot...because I really like them.   I would add these to my collection if I could.

 

 3.  I love to sew.  I never thought I'd say that after freshman Home Ec when I made a skirt and very fashionable 80's vest! (It was PEACH!)

4.  I would love to have a rotary phone in the kitchen.  This aqua one would do just fine!

 Growing up, we had a harvest gold one in the room between our kitchen and living room.  It had a super long cord that you could move from room to room with.

5.  I got braces in 7th grade and wore them till right after my school pictures in 10th grade.  My 7th grade boyfriend also had braces, and the running joke in our class was that if we kissed, we would get stuck together!  HI-LARIOUS everyone!

6.  I took piano lessons for 6 years while I was young.  I had a really old teacher who I didn't  like very much.  She was the scariest lady.

7.  My favorite subject in school was Math and English.  I had the best teachers.  One of them is Grace's math teacher this year.

8.  I LOVE TO READ.  Enough said.

9.  My favorite place to go is Chicago.  We go up there at least once a year, sometimes more.

10.  If I could do anything as a career, it would be to be a librarian, scrapbook all day long and get paid for it, own my own vintage shop, or host craft weekends every weekend at my house, and get paid!

11.  I never want to camp ever again.  It wasn't bad as a kid, but the thought of doing it as an adult, holds no appeal for me.

And lastly...

12.  I'm glad I started writing this blog...Never thought I would ever do anything like this...my sister was always the writer, but it's been a great experience.

A Change of Sport...

Evan's room is the most neglected in the house.

I might have good intentions, and put it on my to-do list to change it up, but it doesn't usually happen.

His room is the only room in the house which has been the same color for the 7 years that we've lived here.

Sorry Ev.

BUT, blue and red ARE his favorite colors!

The last "change-up" was to make his room a little more "baseball-ish" when he was going through his baseball phase.

When I asked him the other day what he'd like his room to be now, he told me FOOTBALL.  It's his sport of choice now.

So today I got busy.

Here is the before.
BEFORE I asked him to clean it up.

It might not look too messy, but the bed isn't made, and the floor on the other side of the picture was covered with Legos.

I started first with a small project to get the room started.

I had an old window frame that I purchased at a barn sale years ago.

I also had printed some vintage-looking football pictures off of Pinterest yesterday.
I got out my stash of foam board from the kids past 4-H projects,

and I taped the printed pictures to one side of the foam board (after I had cut it to size) and put them in the window slots in the order that I wanted them.  Then I just put masking tape all around the edges.  It holds them pretty good because foam board is not heavy, and because I want to easily change them out if I need to.

Once finished, it looked like this...

SO EASY.

This is what started the theme of the room.

I moved his bed to the opposite wall, and took all the baseball stuff off his corner shelves, and added all the football items he currently owns.  (We'll have to grow this collection!)

I had sewed the pennant bunting about a year ago, and all the E's came from an antique store run I made with my cousin the day after Christmas.  The small chalkboard score board...one of my vintage chalkboards and a chalkboard marker.  Pretty cool.

The vintage metal cabinet in the corner of his room is his makeshift bookshelf and his storage for Lego models already completed.

I got it a LONG time ago at a garage sale, and it's made all the moves with us from house to house, and it's been in a lot of different rooms of the house.  It works best here.


SOOOOO.....

The important thing...Ev was happy with the outcome.  Me too.  Until I come up with a new "project" for his room.

The finished views.

Tomorrow, taking all the 10 bags I filled up today to Goodwill before the New Year.  We cleaned out Grace's closet, the game closet, and Ev's closet.

Whew.  I'm tired.

A Day for the girls

It's not often I get to go somewhere just with the girls.

And NO KIDS.

Today, I got to get away with one of my best girlfriends.  I'm sure you have some too.  The girls who you have so much in common with, whose tastes match your own, and who you genuinely like to be with!

We went up to the Allegan County Flea Market.

Yes, it's a Sunday.  Yes, we skipped church.

I'm sorry.  The flea market is on the last Sunday of every month.

We had a lot of fun.

Nonstop talking.

Chippy paint galore...

Burlap and flowers...

Pretty wooden boxes by the stack...

Pinwheels (and someone's very bright blue backside...sorry.)

Once it got hot, we decided to get outa Dodge.  We drove out of the fairgrounds and went downtown Allegan for some lunch and some antique store hopping.

We talked for hours about everything.  My mouth is tired from talking and smiling.

I brought home some goodies.

I got some wrought iron fences for the garden where the cutting flowers are and some other things...

The globe was $2 because the man who sold it to me forgot to take the price tag off from when he bought it.  He was kinda mad at himself, but honored the price.  It'll go good with my globe collection.

The red wire basket will go in the living room and the pistachio green handle is my favorite!  The chippy white frames will be used for craft projects.

Grace needed a hook in her bathroom for her wet towels.  In a former life, I'm sure this was used for hats.  It'll be spray painted and will be just the right size.

It was a good day.  I'm so glad we went!

Above all the rest

I never realized how many shelves I have in my house until I came across the linky party over at The Lettered Cottage.

I always think their decorating ideas are inspirational.

So, I got out the camera and walked around the house and started snapping pictures of all my shelves.

I have several in the living room...First the "game ones,"

and then my favorite books/maps ones...

I have some in the dining room by our table...

for all the new pictures I take of the kids every year.

I even have some in the foyer.

And some with a purpose.

There is even some above the bed.

Do I have a shelf fetish?  No, it's just a great way to display things!

So, I'm linking up to the lettered cottage shelf/mantel linky party.  Click here.

or on the picture below.

A Sunnier point of view

The first week of summer break has flown by at a remarkable pace!

We got a lot accomplished, with much more yet to do.

I'm trying to pace myself.

Awhile ago I mentioned that I wanted to repaint the living room.  It's been a very dark brownish/grey since we moved in 6 1/2 years ago.

This week, I finally did it.

I chose Valspar's Kia Caramel as the color.

These pictures unfortunately don't do the room justice.  Every time I wanted to take a pic, the light streaming in from the windows distorted the color...so try your best to visualize.

It's definitely BRIGHTER than I expected, and the room looks alot bigger.  I'm still getting used to it.

The pictures on the left are the before....

I also rearranged the furniture and the things on the walls.  I may do more with that.

My favorite place in the whole room, though is this...

I tried hard to not buy anything new.  I just moved things around and used them in a different way.  Like the berries on the lamp behind the couch...

and the tin Monopoly game box I got at a garage sale years ago.

I still have the desk area to rearrange and fix up before I show it.  I also have more colorful pillows to make for the couch, and a new organizer to make for the desk to hold bills, address books, etc.

But what do you think about the color?