Bringing the pretty

My mentor in home decor, the Nester, is doing a FANTASTIC series about simple ways to address each room in your home, helping make it more beautiful, more functional, more liveable, more you. The one on Master Bedrooms really got me thinking, especially when she followed up w/a how-to beautify your bedroom on a budget. I was a woman on a mission.

The ideas she presented spoke to me. My bedroom needs to be my sanctuary. And it doesn't all have to be about spending a ton of money, finding what's 'in style', or even having to buy a bunch of stuff.

My goal in this project was to NOT spend a ton of money (for my birthday I had been given a gift card to Hobby Lobby, a little bit of money, and my mom had purchased me some sewing supplies to go with my new sewing machine). Some projects were in the works! And really, I'm putting myself all out there for you... my bedroom was a mess. It was the dumping ground for piles of laundry, shoes all over the floor, bed unmade... frump frump frump! So cleaning up and cleaning out was going to be a major part of this project... and here's the kicker... I had 1 day to do the majority of the work. I had taken a day off and while I COULD certainly spend more time on it (more time, more money, more STUFF)... I wanted to make this easy and simple. I knew this could all be a starting point and my mantra at Hobby Lobby was: you don't have to get that now, wait and see what you REALLY want in the room...

so, I present to you the before:

...I know. Its bad. All I can say is, I'm sorry.

And the after:

ahhhh.... OK, yes its just a starting point, but seriously? SO much better than the before, right? I bought the fabric for the comforter and curtains at Hobby Lobby, along w/a solid color sheet set at Target. Because I was doing this w/o husband knowing AT ALL what I was up to, I knew I needed to err on the side of caution with my fabrics and and not do any big floral prints. I knew there would be room for added touches of femininity as time went on. I hope to provide more posts later on as I finish out with a few more details.

For more information about bringing the pretty, and to gather some inspiration for so many others who are joining the Nester's party, click the button below...

Personal disclaimer: due to the nature of my project and the horrid mess I was starting with, my personal project took more than 10 minutes.

beaut-i-ful

i just love her simple style and unique design.

in case my husband is reading this or if anyone wants to email him and clue him in, the freshwater pearl earrings would be perfect for valentines day!

http://lisaleonardonline.com/

Goals or Resolutions

My online mommy group decided to do a list of goals/resolutions. I'm not sure which category my list falls under (I'm thinking goals)

either way, here's my list

Get back on track with our budget
Pay off our credit card and husband's student loan (that would leave only medical bills and mortgage for debt!)
Lose 20 (maybe 25) pounds
Complete one sewing project every month (did I tell you all I got a sewing machine for Christmas)
Buy husband a truck
Keep up with the house more
Get oldest daughter fully potty trained by the start of the summer

Oh, I have a funny story

/first lemme say i'm typing while i eat lunch, which means one-handed, which means no caps...

ok, they made a funny comment on sits about guys being welcome, but put the seat down- every time!!! and that reminded me of one of my funniest encounters wuth the seat up... well its funny now. then i was.... angry.

so husband and i were on our honeymoon... a 6 day cruise around the carribean type area. it was the first day/night/whatever and i excused myself to our little bathroom. now, i'm not a shy pee-er or anything like that... husband and i had dated too long to be shy about that stuff, anywho i went on in and the next thing i knew- splash- my butt had hit WATER! (had to cap that!) husband, in all his newly-married glory- had left the seat up. and, as it turns out, the shape of toilets on cruise ships is such that you can give it a glance before you sit down and it looks like the seat is down, but upon further investigation (with your butt) you find yourself in a very wet operation!

and, btw, what is it with guys and their toilet habits? why don't they put the seat back down? wasn't it down when they came in? didn't being a boy scout or something teach them to put things back where they found them? and don't they realize that if we sit 100% of the time and they sit 50% of the time that that means the MAJORITY of the time the seat needs to be down? furthermore, why can't they put the new roll of tp on the tp holder? why do they just set it on top of the old empty roll? i hate that.