Sunday, March 30, 2014

Master Vanities

The bathroom vanities came with shelving that is visible through some metalwork. 
Calling it ironwork would be a stretch. It's not that substantial.


I knew that anything dark would recede and that white items would show. Stuff like our hairbrushes, hair dryers and the curling iron just fade in the background and are hidden in plain sight. 



 The challenge was filling these niches with some stuff that looked good but was also functional. 





I reused my old Kirkland's jar set but had to split it up.


Bill didn't have a lot of patience for pretties in his vanity so he got a stack of white washcloths and a jar of Epsom salt.



Just a side note, I have been using Epsom salt in my bath and it helps with my scoliosis pain. My granny swore by Epsom salt. 



I shopped the house for cups and jars. Silver baby cups hold Q-Tips and make up brushes. I filled old Avon jars with new creams.



You may be wondering how these new vanities are working out. 
Let me begin by saying that we love how they look. 
Bill loves how they function. He loves having something that is an appropriate height for him.  


Our old vanity had a center drawer (a very messy make up drawer.) 



I've adapted by putting my makeup in jewelry trays from Tuesday Morning. 


It stays so much neater than my old system but I have to stand to get ready in the morning or I scoot the chair up to a little mirror or to the mirror on the door. If I scoot the chair over to the mirror on the door, I end up balancing the tray of cosmetics on my lap. I've spilled it a time or two so 
I'm a little over it.  





My flat iron drove me crazy near the sink because the cord got tangled in the metal doors so it hangs in an old wall pocket.
 All this is appealing to Bill because my stuff no longer morphs over toward his sink.


Bill offered to get me an antique vanity table to put in our room. 



We love our remodel and we would go with two vanities again in a heartbeat but I finally got serious about the search for a dressing table.
I'll show you what I found in another post.
Katie   
Linking with,
A Stroll Thru Life   
Savvy Southern Style 

Friday, March 28, 2014

Drop Cloth Settee

It was drizzling and misty. I was glad I had a van. 
A curbside rescue! 


When my work day ended, I got in the car and it reeked - musty, cigarette smokey yuck.
I came home and immediately started ripping off the upholstery. The poor thing almost ended up back in our trash but it had such cute lines. I decided to wait it out to see what would happen.
It sat in the garage for a while until all the fumes were out of it. The smell had not permeated the wood, only the upholstery. The wood got a once over with cleaning solution.  


A soft brown chenille was an almost perfect match for our existing sofa at the time. 


It was around $200.00 for fabric and supplies which was a bit pricey.
When we moved it into the garden room it taunted me. 
It needed to be lightened up.  
I recovered it last winter with painter's drop cloths from Lowes. Drop cloth canvas is economical and durable. 



 I knew as soon as I was finished that it needed a coat of paint to feel "sunroomy". 
It was a perfect job for the long evenings I was home alone - those lost months following the death of my brother- when Bill was traveling for his old job.  



It looks exactly how I thought it should.
  


Why did take me almost a year? 
I think long and hard about which pieces to paint.


I've stripped "antiquing" off of some furniture in my time and I don't want to have to do that again.



I paint with the understanding that when this 
painted furniture craze is over that some of my pieces will be given away. I only paint the "not too precious". 









That being said, I haven't regretted painting anything. 
In fact I wish that this style had started before I gave some other cute stuff away. I keep thinking that I'm nearing the end of what I want to see with a coat of white but the paint brings out lines, curves and detail not seen with stain.
 I'm falling in love with my furniture again. 
I have some more to show!  
Katie   
Linking with,
French Country Cottage
Common Ground   
Thoughts From Alice  
Funky Junk Interiors   
Blissful Whites Wednesday   
A Stroll Thru Life   
Savvy Southern Style 
Ivy and Elephants


Thursday, March 27, 2014

Zip It, Lock It, Put It In Your Pocket

The little old ladies and grandmas were right. 
I didn't believe them, of course, because I was mired in a sea of diapers, potty training, spills, laundry etc. 
It's hard to see a light at the end of that tunnel when you are in the midst of it.



But, 
those wise older ladies said to cherish it because it would go fast. 
You wouldn't think with all the pressures of being a young mom that it would go fast as it did but it goes faster than you can imagine.



The truth is, I did cherish it. 
I stayed home with my preschoolers knowing that those years were fleeting. 
The grade levels sped by when they were in elementary school. Jr. high and high school went even faster.


The problems back then were fairly simple ones. Not always but many of the woes and worries of those days were easy to fix.



As a mom I could fix them or at least most of them. 
That is one of the struggles and balancing acts of being the parent of adults. The desire to step in and fix doesn't go away just because your child has reached the milestone of majority.


Their problems are adult problems and for the most part there is nothing you can do to help "fix" except pray, listen and advise when asked
We have a saying at school. 
Actually it is Mrs. Bentley's saying but it works for getting the class quiet and it's become the trademark motto for dealing with our adults. 
"Zip it, lock it, put it in your pocket."
The time to teach and train our children doesn't end as far as the modeling we do as parents. That endures for a lifetime but the time to verbally train and teach has a beginning and an end. 
How many of us like unsolicited advice?


I don't and my kids don't.
We had 18 (or 22) years to instruct our children in the majority of the life lessons that they would need as adults. 
That is a long time in spite of the fact that is seems like a minute. Harping on the same issues and principles at some point goes in one ear and out another.  
So we listen and support as necessary without telling our kids what to do because it's their life-it's their life lessons, experiences and path.

I wasn't a helicopter mom but the desire to go all "black hawk down" rises up every once in a while. I can't and it wouldn't be appropriate to do so.


I rest in the knowledge that while we weren't perfect parents (by any means,) we've raised smart, self sufficient, independent children. 
They can do the "mission impossible" themselves. 
I just needed to remind myself of that this week. 
Katie  






Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Sleep Number Bed

I forgot to tell you all about our new mattress.



 Bill came home after a couple of weeks of traveling for his new job last fall and said we were going mattress shopping. 
Our mattress was from 1998, so we were long overdue. 
He decided that on the three nights a week he got to sleep in his own bed, it needed to be comfortable.



We'd gone back and forth about what kind of mattress to get because we each have a firmness preference.
If I don't sleep in my own bed, I wake up with a back ache. It's a dull ache and stiffness that goes away as I move around during the morning. I certainly didn't want that to happen every morning.
We visited with the Memory Foam people at a home show a few years ago but we weren't sure. 
The ads for the Sleep Number grabbed my attention and I was sure that it was the answer to our bed incompatibility. 
We headed out to the mall and purchased a midline model that was on sale. 
There was a delivery charge and a wait time of a week or two. 
Answer the phone when an out of state number calls, they are simply trying to set up a delivery time. 
Oops!   


It arrived in boxes and the delivery guys put it together like they were building with Legos. 
The box spring literally looked like some sort of children's building toy. It consisted of four PVC cubes that were put together on the spot and then plopped into the bed.



The air mattress went into a cover surrounded by foam edges. 



They put a foam cover on top of that, zipped it up, plugged it in and filled it up.
We needed to purchase surge protectors so a storm won't blow out our motor. That wouldn't be covered by the warranty.



At that point it looks like any other mattress but it's very light weight. 

I have to say, at first I was disappointed in how it appeared because it wasn't as high as our old mattress and it seemed a little out of proportion with our tall head board.
I like that "Princess And The Pea" type of look. 



I will also say that the first few nights sleeping on it were a little disappointing. 
I accidentally let all the air out of my side the first night and I woke up on the "legos" underneath.  
Clearly I couldn't be trusted with the remote while I was sleeping. 
I also woke up with a back ache for a few days.
Ugh!  
They have a return policy but the store told us to give it a week. I've since heard that there is a stiff restocking fee but I couldn't verify that.  
We had been sleeping on a two inch memory foam mattress topper to help extend the life of our old mattress and I missed that layer of cushion. 



  We had the bed a week or two and I talked Bill into  getting a memory foam mattress topper. The bed was comfortable but I missed have a more pillow type top. 
We could have headed out to Walmart or Target but Bill said we needed to stick with the Sleep Number brand.




 Our sales lady said that she added the memory foam topper to her bed too. 
In addition to the mattress and the topper we got the mattress cover with gel inside to help regulate body temperature. It works for the winter but I'm afraid this mattress topper will be too hot in the summer. We'll see.
Making the bed is easy (???) just match all the Sleep Number arrows. (I didn't realize making a bed was difficult. This part seemed a little infomercial like.) 
I was reminded of the old "Garanimal" clothing line. 



Let me tell you that this bed is heaven.



I don't wake up with a back ache. 
I wake up quicker and feel more rested. 
Bill loves it. 
We started out at the same number but he has since bumped his side up to more firmness. 



I wish I could tell you that we've been compensated in some way by Sleep Number for this review. 
No such luck!
Katie   
Linking with,
A Stroll Thru Life   
Savvy Southern Style