Home Goals 2011

I am so glad that one of the amazing bloggers I follow, Nester, started a Linky Party yesterday!  I have been wanting to do some kind of 2011 post, but couldn't figure out a focus.  Well, she set one: Home Goals 2011.  


(I rushed home after school to try to get some good shots in natural light, but with the snow clouds we have up here, that wasn't too successful!!!)


1. "Tchotchke" up my shelves

Months ago, when I started Blogstalking YHL (if you follow the link, you have to promise me you will still return to read my blogs...they are good and will hook you....), I fell in love with their floating shelves.

Rusty took me to Ikea, and we had them up that night.  After about 6 months of staring of them and fighting the commitment issues of putting stuff on them, I have decided that they compete with my mantle.  Take a look at this picture, and you can see that I have this weird half wall dividing my open living room and dining room.  

The shelves look great in just the dining room, but my beautiful, dramatic mantlescape needs the full attention of everyone.  It told me.

So, here is the full picture of what I am dealing with:

Specific mini goals:

• remove the top shelf and use elsewhere
• paint the shelves high gloss white to match my trim (they are a little off white)
• decorate them with items that are less dramatic than what is going on on the mantle and help out with the "dining room" feel.

2. Swankify our master bedroom
I love our bedroom.  It is perfect.  It's got a great vibe.  It's got a lot of potential.  The color is perfect.  The furniture is lovely.  I have tray ceilings.  I have a dramatic mantle.  The sun shines just right in there.  Got it?  I'm in love. However, it needs something to take it to the next level.  After seeing this picture at Bower Power, I knew what I wanted to do.

A wall of fabric right behind our bed.  I really think it would give it that swanky, luxurious, hotel feel.  So, here are my options:

• buy more Ikea white curtains and do the wall
• take the two sets of white Ikea curtains out of the living room and dining room to use in the bedroom and replace the living room and dining room curtains with print
• buy print fabric or curtains and do the wall

3. Cover all "builder beige" walls
So far, I have eliminated all builder beige except for the kitchen, guest bathroom and guest bedroom.  I am on schedule for painting the kitchen in February.  My goal is to paint the guest bed and bath in 2011.  Nuff said.


4. Crown Molding
My good friend, Lisa, gave me about 160' of free crown molding!  We painted the office back in June knowing we were going to put up crown.  Well, it still looks like this:

In 2011, it must go up!  I will also put the rest of the crown in the guest bedroom after we paint it.  I am hoping it will really make the ceilings look higher since the room is only 10' x 10'.  I am even thinking of trying this technique that I saw at Bower Power:

5.  Light Fixtures
At least once a day, Rusty laughs at me because he catches me looking at our current light fixtures in disgust!  He just rolls his eyes.  Of course I am going to try to find some deals, but this is what we have and what I am dreaming of...today, at least.
Entryway:

www.timberlakelighting.com

Breakfast Nook:

www.shadesoflight.com

Dining Room:

I'm not too sure what to put here.  Possibly a drum shade!


Well, there they are.  My 2011 Home Goals.  I'm comfortable with the word goal.  It says, "I have a end at which my efforts are directed."


Resolution.  I hear, "In 15 days, when you fail, you will never live it down."


What are some of your 2011 goals?  Or maybe you call them resolutions!

From Me to You

I hope as this posts (set on auto-post from Thursday night) that we are all surrounded by family and friends eating great food and opening wonderful gifts.  I also hope that you all will enjoy this wonderful gift I am giving you.  If not for yourself, you might know a friend who will love it.

In search for some wonderfully free art, I ran across this project at one of my favorite blogs, Bower Power. 

Here's a little tutorial:

I typed my whole project in Power Point.  I am sure you can use Paint or Word.  All you need is something that has text boxes for you to play around with.

You will want to adjust the fonts styles ans sizes to get the look you want.  Play around with capitalization and the directions of words.  You will also want to think about the size frame that you will want to display this art it.  I chose to do one for a 5x7 frame, so I adjusted my margins to be 4.75"x6.75" to allow for a little room around the edges.

Then you print it out.  I used regular printer paper because that is what I had, but card stock would be wonderful.

All that is left is to place this in a frame.

I think it looks wonderful, and it is very personal to me.  For example, not everyone calls their town "The Land of Milk and Honey" or "The Promise Land" or has friends who call it "The Galapagos".  But I do.  I also know that Amicalola Falls is in Dawson County, but it was my 1st real taste of Dahlonega when Rusty chose it as our 1st date and the place where he would eventually propose to me.

You could make this for a specific state, a city, a school or college, a couple, a special friend, or even a family.  All it takes is a little time thinking of personal words to describe it.

Since it is Christmas, I would love to e-mail the template I already have set up for this project in a 5x7 size.  You can use what I already have and change the words around for your own art.  If you would like the file for free, just leave me a comment with your e-mail address.  I will send it over.

Again, I hope everyone is having a very Merry Christmas!

Love,
Heather

Follow the Leader(s)

I stumbled across blogging a few months ago when I typed in my living room paint color and hoped to find some complimenting paint colors for my kitchen.  I found references to these paint colors on a blog named Young House Love.  I started following them and reading their posts daily.

From YHL, I found Bower Power and Nesting Place.

(If I knew how to do screen shots, I would put some visuals up here for you)

I also keep up with my cousin, Laura, through her blog, LPC Interiors.


I am sure you have noticed something.  All of these blogs are major home DIY blogs.  Yes.  And they came around at just the right time.  After Rusty and I poured every cent into a nice down payment for the house, it was up to me to find ways to decorate it without breaking the budget.

I mean, we have been married for over 7 years, but we never really "lived" anywhere.  When we moved to Jacksonville, we lived with the mindset that we would be moving in less than 2 years.  We bought a used couch, love seat, desk, washer, dryer and a new mattress and kitchen table.  We moved back to Georgia with just the kitchen table and mattress.  In 2 years, we never put one nail hole in the wall for decor.


Then, we moved into the lovely "cabin" totaling about 300 square feet. 

                                                                   

(this is after we moved out and the next moved in)

Seriously, it is as small as it looks.  Through good times and bad times, we made it 3 years in that cabin.  Both the cabin and the generosity of our families got us into Sadie Court!

Oh - If you're doing the math and know the Jacksonville house and the cabin only total 5 years of our 7 married years, you would be correct.  He lived on a ship, and I lived in my bedroom for the first 2 years of marriage, hehe.

I digress....

The blogs that I started following have given me so much inspiration over the last few months.  I have completely transformed the bare, builder-beige, walls of this new construction home to a cozy home for the two of us.  Just like any good teacher, I have stolen so many ideas from blogs!  Reading these blogs on a daily basis gave me the urge to write one.  I know that my family and friends love to keep up with what we are doing, and we all don't get to talk as often as we would like to.  I also have lots of friends who like some of the DIY projects that I have done recently, and I would just love to pay it forward and inspire something in their home.

I don't know why you have chosen to follow me or read this, but I hope that something catches your eye!