Corners of Our Home: Bedroom redecorating...

We've done a little redecorating in our bedroom.  After our July bed bug debacle we were forced to do some serious cleaning, purging, and reorganizing of the room.  Many things were thrown away, others were deep cleaned, and still others had to be relocated.  It was a frustrating experience to stay the least.  But, it did push us to get some projects done that I've had on my mind for awhile.  We finally (after 8 years!) got a headboard.  It is metal, the most bed bug resistant headboard option!  We also put up some shelves on either side of the bed to help each of us store some of our own special things: books, cards from the boys, golf scorecards, etc.  Our bedroom has been a dumping ground for far too long.  I'm hoping these updates will help me keep our room tidy, but we'll see.

Big improvement.

Corners of Our Home: Indoor Garden...

I've been working on sprucing things up around the house lately.  If there's anything I've learned from my experiences of welcoming new babies into the family it's that I spend lots of time sitting on the couch staring at my house and get all sorts of ideas about how I want to change things up.  SO...I decided to try and get ahead of those feelings a little bit and pick some of the areas that I will see the most and change them up a bit.

The shelves across from the couch were my first fix.  The boys and I decided to turn the top of the shelves into a little indoor garden.  We bought a few plants (and the boys contributed some chives from Bible Study) and now we have a happy little space that I can stare at while spending gobs of time nursing on the couch.  I think it's going to work out well.  I don't expect to stay satisfied with this forever, but hopefully this will at least get me through Christmas ;)

Corners of Our Home: Faux Porch...

I really wanted to spruce up our front "porch" for fall.  The only problem with this was that we don't really have much of a porch to speak of.  So, I thought about it for awhile, and decided I wasn't going to be deterred.  So I came up with my own "Faux Porch" to decorate.  I used a bare spot in the flowerbed to the left of the front door to hang some bunting and put some mums, and put a few potted plants next to my door.  And guess what?!  I'm pretty darn happy with it.  I'll probably tweak it as time goes on, but for now, I think it looks welcoming and fall-ish, which is just what I was after.

One of the things that I've really grown to appreciate about living in a small home is that I have to be CREATIVE with everything I do when it comes to decorating.  And you know what, the satisfaction that comes from figuring out a solution to a little decor problem is incredibly gratifying for me.  Someday I will probably have more space to indulge all of my ideas, but for right now, I'm quite content with figuring out ways to make my small space work for me (and my family too ;)  Long live the faux porch!

And I had to add this little sign next to the doorbell, don't want anyone messing up naptime!

Corners of our Home: The Boys' Room...

I've been working on creating a shared bedroom space for Henry and Charlie for awhile now.  Getting things done around here happens at quite the snail's pace sometimes, but I think I have things the way I like them for now.  We replaced Henry's bed with a bunk bed from ikea, so we didn't lose any floor space, and everything seems to be working out quite nicely.  I love looking back at pictures of how rooms in our house evolve as the needs of our family change, and this will be a fun one to look back on as the boys grow (Here's the room when it was just Henry's).  Here's the little tour...

View from the door...

The boys' shelves.  I tried to add a few more "Charlie" items to keep things fair in here.  Henry likes to use these shelves to display his random preschool crafts.  This keeps them away from Charlie :)

The boxes under the bed store out of season clothes...

Shelves up close...

This is the boys' little desk area.  I made the bunting by cutting up some of their watercolor artwork and then just hung a few things I had lying around.  I will likely change this up at some point, but for now, this is good...

The pictures on the desk are all of Henry, but I figured that since he's the oldest he'll be the first to use the desk, so I kept it as a little space just for him :)

The lockers were a gift from Denise last Christmas.  They store sweatshirts and shoes and Henry uses one of the lockers to lay out his school clothes...

I made some new pirate bunting for their room awhile ago.  It turned out pretty cute, and since I don't really want lots of "theme" stuff in their room, I thought this was a good nod to their little pirate interest without it being too much (for mom :)...

And look, Charlie's quilt is DONE!  Full pictures in another post (hopefully soon!)...

And here's Henry's quilt on the top bunk...

And here's a picture of the full room...

 And a shot of the very best thing about the lockers!  I bought a bunch of magnets and this is where the boys display all of their Bible Study, Cubbies, and preschool crafts.  It is working out perfectly!  When it gets full, we purge (or save the very special stuff :)...

So that's it for the boys' room.  Now that Charlie is sleeping on the bottom bunk he is almost officially out of the nursery, which is great, because it will have a new occupant in just a few short weeks!  We can't wait :)

Corners of our Home: Patio...

I spruced up this little corner of the patio recently.  I added the succulents to the top shelf and the window to the wall above it, along with the turquoise baskets to store balls and yard toys.  The wooden crate I had on hand as well as the black wire basket that is storing our wiffleballs.  The shelving unit came out of Henry's closet when we installed a closet organizing system in its place.  Overall a big improvement in both form and function for us.  Yeah!

Corners of our Home: Quilt ladder...

This certainly isn't an original idea, but it sure is a good one!  Storing special quilts on this ladder makes them both visible and accessible at all times.  A win-win in this house :)

Corners of our home: Sewing Nook...

My blogging has sort of fallen off in the past 6 months or so.  One of our computers died, then I got pregnant, then got sick (bronchitis), then I recovered, then I got sick again (bronchitis round 2), and again (shingles), and in the midst of all this I was staying busy with the boys and Bible Study, and Cubbies directoring.  Whew, makes me tired just thinking about all of it.  Anyways, I'm hoping to pick up steam again soon.  

One of the things about blogging that I enjoy the most is that it gives me a personal space for recording my own pursuits, like tinkering around my house!  I miss posting about my home.  So, when I have the time and energy, I hope to post little peaks into corners of our home .  I'm not doing it for any sort of complimentary comments, but I just really like going back and looking at how our home has evolved over the years.  I'm constantly changing things and want to make sure I keep track of it here.  Feel free to indulge in these tiny home tours.  Not sure how often they will come, but they'll be fun for me when they do :)

First up, my sewing nook:

I LOVE my sewing nook.  It is the one space in the house that is all mine :)  Although it's location right by the front door isn't necessarily ideal, I really don't mind it at all.  I consider it a small victory to have created such a wonderful nook in our rather small home!  The cabinets were purchased from ikea and installed when I was pregnant with Charlie, and the giant wooden teacher's desk was purchased for $50 from a yard sale in Fresno when I was still in college...

I found the printer shelf in the alley last week and it has already helped improve my desk cluttering tendencies.  I used to just throw my works in progress on top of the printer, but it always looked sloppy and everything would slide off eventually since the top of the printer is slick and slanted.  The shelf gives me a place to neatly store the projects I'm working on while still giving us printer access.  Win-win.

Jill gave me this print for Christmas a few years ago, and it lives on the end of the cabinet on the left side of the desk.  I really love it there!

On the cabinet directly in front of my sewing machine I keep my chalkboard that Denise and Andrew made for me, along with baby #3's ultrasound picture...

On another cabinet I have a few free printables that I love taped up...

And on top of my desk I have this 3-tiered stand that I got for Christmas that stores some of my most used sewing/crafting supplies.  It is perfect for this purpose!  I also have a white cake stand that I use to hold my utensil cups, and a large glass jar that I shove projects in that I need to get to, but aren't pressing...

Another view of the printer shelf.  Such a great little alley find!  There are some treasures to be had in our alley :)

Another view of my supplies...

On the left side of the desk sits my iron, clothespins, and my flea market fancy fat quarter pack...

I finally got smart and used a command hook to hang my ruler.  This makes such a difference!

And here are all my cupboards opened up.  I didn't organize anything for you, so what you see is how I really live with it :)  Organizing extraordinaire I am not :)  The baskets on the top of the cabinets hold bulky sewing items like batting, pillow forms, and large quantities of fabric that I might need again.  It's actually a really great system for me...

The long cabinet to the right of my desk holds all of my crafting/office supplies...

The corner cabinet holds sewing notions, ribbon, felt, and other miscellaneous sewing odds and ends...

The cabinet to the left currently holds Sharon's collection of Little House on the prairie books along with other random stuff that I haven't really found a good home for...

And, the cabinet directly in front of my sewing machine stores all of my fabric...

The top of my printer shelf...

So, that's my sewing nook!  It's not perfect, but it works really well for me.  I am so thankful to have it.