Milestone Monday!

We've hit a milestone here - this little ol' blog of mine has hit 10,000 page views. Exciting! So thanks to all of you for reading my ramblings and sticking with me through infrequent posts, crazy projects and my sub-par photography. (And I realize it is not Monday as the title suggests, but Milestone Tuesday doesn't sound as great, now does it? And I did think of it yesterday.)

Honestly I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately with all the projects that are unfinished around here - the mud room in the garage, the bonus room window treatments, the unpainted upstairs hallway, etc. And did I mention that the basement flooded again? That's the third time in seven years. Ugh. Fortunately we learned our lesson the first time and everything was off the floor or in a waterproof bin. And we caught it before there was too much of a mess.

Lately I've kicked it into high gear and am finally powering through some things that should have been done ages ago. Our bedroom is now painted and has curtains again, and yesterday I finished sewing the kitchen window valance. I'll post pictures once the house is not a complete disaster. Oh yeah, and the valance still needs to be hung up. Lucky you, tomorrow is cleaning day and my handyman (i.e. Bubba) is coming over tonight.

Because I have many projects going on at the same time, one of the ways that I keep everything organized is my house binder.  I like to have all the info about every room handy when I'm out shopping for stuff, because you never know when you'll wonder whether the fabric in the quilt is raspberry pink, bubblegum pink, or pinky pink.

I bought a small 7x9 inch binder from Office Max and some business card inserts and filled it full of paint swatches and fabric samples. Each room has its own page, so it's easy to find what I'm looking for when I need it. I love having everything all in one place!

Master Bedroom Painting

It seems like I always have multiple projects going on at once. I have a tendency to start projects and then let them hang on forever, either because of indecision, inability or lack of time. One of my New Year's resolutions was to finally finish painting all the rooms in our house. We've been here for about seven years now and there is still rough, scratchy marked up builder paint in spaces.

In the fall, when we stained the deck, I also got a few estimates for painting our master bedroom. The numbers were a bit higher than I wanted, so I figured I could do it myself. How hard could it be to paint the walls and ceiling of a huge bedroom with 11 foot vaulted ceilings and a ceiling fan smack dab in the middle? Well, I can tell you it was HARD work. Imagine me standing on tiptoes on top of a ladder, maneuvering between fan blades, using a small brush to paint a very large space.  It took a solid weekend and there were times I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull it off. But now it is done, nobody got hurt, I got a great workout and I love the color (Jogging Path by Sherwin-Williams).

Took me forever to get that tape around the light fixture!

Just starting out - this part took the most time!

The room already feels much cozier and homier. Now comes the fun part - new curtain rods, window treatments, lamps, pillows, etc. And here's a small confession. I'm not that great at pulling together all the coordinates. In fact, Ben is much better at it than I am. He can look at something and decide instantly and accurately whether it will look great or awful in the space. If only he shared my belief that you can never have too many pillows.

Half done with the ceiling!

Finally finished with the paint! Now on to accessories!

I've been loving the new Threshold line from Target. The other day I went on a buying binge (it's all on sale this week) and snatched up a bunch of lampshades, curtain panels and lamps. Now comes the part where I stare at them forever before deciding whether Ben is right (he usually is) about what should stay and what should go. The other option is using some of the newvstuff in the bonus room, which also has new paint but no accessories. I hope to have pictures of both completed rooms soon. I have lots of great ideas for the walls, thanks to Pinterest, so we'll see where we end up.