Finally...New Post, New Curtains, New Lights

Well, it's about time, huh?  It's been way too long since I last posted.  The days are flying by and what seemed like a month and a half has really been 3 months.  Yikes!

I've been in a "nesting" mood since the beginning of the year.  We've lived in this house for over 3 1/2 years and I decided it was time to finally get to some projects that had been put off and put off.  So, we rearranged the living room and I decided to make some new curtains to replace the ones I made from sheets when we first moved here.  It was sometimes fun, sometimes very frustrating, and sometimes just funny (as in I can't believe how brainless hormones have made me) but they got finished and hung and I like them.

Kitchen curtains made from Crate and Barrel dish towels.

Living room curtains made from white Ikea curtains with an added border of fun fabrics.

The dining room slider has a curtain just like these.

Hubs decided to do some projects too and made me my mason jar lights I've been wanting to put in the kitchen.  He had a brainstorm about what hardware to use to mount them--industrial surface mount conduit and electrical boxes--and I think they turned out spectacularly!!

 LIght over sink.

 Lights over the peninsula.

 All lit up.  Sorry it's not a better picture--it was hard to get it to turn out at all.

There's still a lot of accessorizing I 'd like to get finished so that the living room looks put together.  A rug, pillows, pictures for the walls, pretty things on the shelves...I'm kind of in a lull right now but I've set a deadline so hopefully that will spur me on to fffffinish.

Have I Ever Said I Love Blue?

Azure, cerulean, cobalt, peacock, turquoise, periwinkle, navy, teal, midnight...I love them all.  So, I've been trying to figure out how to add some more blue to the kitchen and to the living room.  I thought about a valance for over the kitchen window but I really don't like valances so I had to think of something else.  Ideally, I wanted to find some cool metal grates or registers that I could paint blue and hang up but I didn't have any luck finding any today when I went to Goodwill and the local junktique store.  But, I did score at Joann's.  I found these cheap coasters and buttons and put them together and voila...some new color for the kitchen.  

I think it looks pretty good although ideally, I'd still like to find some cool metal grates or something more industrial that I can paint blue and hang up.

Here are close ups of the coasters.

I also picked up some dye at Joann's and dyed my living room and dining room curtains.  I figured that I didn't have much to lose since they were originally cheap Walmart sheets that I bought when we first moved in.  The color is about the same as the edge of the coasters or maybe a shade lighter.  I don't hate them, but I don't love them either.  I'll give it a day or two (and some daylight) and then I can decide.

Maybe it will give me the little shove I need to go out and find some curtains/curtain fabric that I love, although the search for curtains (and bedding, and towels, and lots of other stuff) usually ends up being very frustrating since the colors I like are brighter than what the majority of people like...

Sneak Peeks

Thought I'd share a few sneak peeks of our almost finished stairway.  I still have a little touch up paint to do and Al needs to get the landing trim and handrails back up.  I think it looks really cool!  Big kudos to Al for the idea for the diamond plate aluminum.  :)

I also have some color on my kitchen walls.  I painted them the same pear green as my laundry room.  I haven't finished with everything yet--I still want to get some turquoise accents in there--but I'm loving the color. 

 

It was so fun to see the kids' reaction when we picked them up Tuesday night.  They both are still commenting on how much they like what we've done.  Trust me, that doesn't happen very often.  :)