What to do with Karl Blechen's Palm House??

I'm experiencing a minor dilemma over here. I have this enormous framed print by Karl Blechen named "The Palm House". When I first saw this in a store in Oklahoma City, I wanted to own it in a way I had never wanted any other thing in my life. Well, you know, I'm speaking here of material possessions. I wanted this piece of art so bad I cried when I returned to the store to find it had sold.

Now, about the dilemma. As I said, this art piece is enormous. Very nearly the same size as one of my living room windows! As much as I love it, I feel that the size of this thing is out of proportion for this house. I can't fit it into the attic or I'd just store it away and drag it back into the sunlight once I have higher ceilings. But what to do with it right now?? I have no idea and I've toyed with selling it off at the yard sale I plan to have soon. ACK! I just don't know what to do with it. *sigh*

Hunting Party

I didn't blog yesterday because I was on a Hunting Party. I have pics of what I found and I'm imagining all kinds of possibilities! Part of the inspiration came when I located a baby doll with porcelain head and hands. I could just see this as a nice accessory for a vintage/antique themed child's room. At this point I believe this is the direction I'm taking the bedroom. So far, I have a few interesting pieces I picked up yesterday. I'm hoping to locate a child's book to take apart so I can frame the pages and hang in the bedroom. Enjoy the sneak peek!



Blue toile pillows sized perfectly for the bed.



Baby needing a pretty antique dress.


Very attractive black shelf.



This blue vase is one I picked up several weeks ago. I loved the grey blue color and the shape. I didn't have a plan for this piece when I bought it, but it was on clearance so I snapped it up! I'm glad I did.

Spring Cleaning

Everyone and their dog is spring cleaning at the moment so I figure I'd chime in with my latest ambition. We have 6 people in the house and laundry can be a headache, especially if one believes that it can be done once a week. Yeah, that was me. When I had 1 or 2 kids, that wasn't necessarily out of line. However, with 4 kids in the house, we need a different system. Fast forward to last week when I'd been on a blog reading binge into the wee hours of the morning. A plan had begun to form in my sleep deprived mind. I didn't actually shove myself away from the desk and shout EUREKA! into the dark of night, but I came close.

I decided to make the commitment to do at least one load of laundry a day. To facilitate that I had to purge the laundry room of items I didn't use. One truth of couponing is that there will be products that you drag home only to find that you detest that particular product. Yep, my laundry room was full of such items. Most of it was noxious bathroom cleaners or kitchen cleansers that put me off. In the end they languished on the shelf. All of it was purged and now I have my handy dandy little system all lined up and ready to go. There is nothing outrageously taxing about the cost of borax, washing soda, vinegar or baking soda. BONUS!

Once all the laundry was washed, folded, hung up and put away we had a workable system in place. It's been a week and so far, the laundry room has remained clear. I'm amazed that I can still see the floor after a whole week!

It's Yard Sale Season!

I have to admit that I've been looking forward to hitting the yard sales. We tend to treat saturday mornings like a date. Just the two of us scoping things out, looking for a great deal. We got up this morning to pouring rain anxious to get started on the first "date morning" of the season. We were so glad we decided to go out into the screaming downpour when we came upon our Find Of The Day, which turned out to be a new bed for our youngest. I love this bed! I can't wait to get started on decorating the room now. I didn't really have a plan for the room before now, but that's just changed. Check out what we found saturday morning:







The bed is from Ikea but seems to fit well into my plan for a French themed room. Better still, the bed adjusts from a toddler size up to a twin size. Yeah, we'll be using this bed for quite some time.

I also located a cloche, jam jar with spoon and a little blue striped crock. Not sure what I'll do with them yet, but I'll think of something.

Rhoda @ Southern Hospitality is having a bit of a show and tell link party of thrift/yard sale items. Check it out, it's amazing what everyone finds!

The Fireplace

I've finally made some progress! The living area is finally starting to come together and I can't wait to see it complete. I thought I'd show everyone how the fireplace looks now that the new paint is up. On the right hand side you can see the old color ( it actually wasn't paint at all but tinted contractor texture goo) which did nothing to enhance the appearance of the fireplace. Before the new paint, you really didn't notice it was in the room. The whole room is warmed up now.

A power sprayer is really a huge help when you have to do a ton of walls. We've found with the sprayer that we've used way, way less paint than it was taking using a roller and old fashioned elbow grease. Plus, using the sprayer was just fun. I have so many furniture projects that I plan to paint this spring that the power sprayer will more than make up for its initial cost. If you look around, you can find them on sale/clearance right now. Ours was a sale item, so that only made it more attractive.

I failed to plan ahead yesterday so we ended up eating at a drive thru. Ick. Today the roast is in the oven and it will take care of itself until this evening. I need to remember to plan out the ENTIRE job, which includes feeding people. Crock Pot meals and oven roasting will be my best buddies for the near future.

I want to hide...

by climbing back in bed and hoping all of the work I need to get done will just evaporate. I don't want to go to the dentist tomorrow, either!

Paint, Paint, Paint

Everywhere!

I am absolutely up to my elbows in paint these days. One thing holding up my progress is drying right now. This is the train/activity table I picked up this past week at the thrift store. The original finish was in bad shape and I didn't care for the blond color of the wood. The table itself was good and sturdy and just about the perfect height.

My youngest son begged to be allowed to choose the paint color. I figured he'd choose a dark grapey purple, which is his favorite color at the moment. I suggested several colors, like grass green, admiral blue and even red. He had no taste for any of those colors. His choice was ultimately black. He said "so it will match with our other furniture, right, mom?" Sure! Why not?