Big ideas, little room

Don't be scared, but the pictures of my dining room are pretty terrifying.  You've been warned:

Horrible

Fur Culprit named Joey - and why is there a plunger in my dining room?

How many chairs can one small room hold?

See?  I told you. Hope you covered the children's eyes.  This is what we're working with.  It's a tiny room, about 8 feet square with a decent window and an entrance both to our main door and to the galley joke-of-a-kitchen.  It also has a tall narrow closet that currently is the only place to house cleaning supplies.   There's a weird floral light fixture that's pretty tragic, but belongs to the landlord, and some haphazard shelves about the place.  It's got nice light colored floors and white-ish walls.  And what do we have in it currently?  Let's see, one dining room set, dark wood, which we despise.  One kitchen set of light colored wood and a bunch of chairs.  Lots and lots of junk.  Also, two cats who have completely covered all the chairs in hair/furballs/cat puke.  I warned you.

I've never really used a dining room for the purpose of dining.  It's pretty much been a room with a big table in it where I throw textbooks, keys, scarves, shoes, magazines, mail, and anything else that isn't food and/or plates.  "Dining" for a busy military couple with two cats, a dog, and a 10-month old usually consists of balancing plates of hot food on our laps or on TV trays as we try to cram in an episode of Modern Family from the DVR and keep the silverware away from Baby Move-a-lot with moderate success.

But, I have a dream.  I have a dream that one day this mess will become a room where a family can get together, talk about their day, and have all the other Campbell's Soup commercial moments that we so desperately deserve.  A room where a table is protected from hot plates, where messes get cleaned up right away, and where friends can join us for a glass of wine.  Hell, a room to hang up said wine, as well as other interesting things we find along our way.

Here's my thought: take advantage of the light colored wood kitchen set.  Although it's not the right size, it's better than that big honking dark wood set which needs to be completely tossed out.  Paint the top of the table a nice glossy white and leave the legs the light wood color.  Get white/yellow/natural wood frames and create a gallery wall on the main wall.  I like yellow as an accent color.  Look for some curtains or fabric with a great bold yellow in them.  Get new cushions for the chairs.  Move all the junk OUT.

Here's some inspiration photos:

Source: thehouseofsmiths.com via Cheri on Pinterest

Source: younghouselove.com via Elizabeth on Pinterest

Source: simpledwellings.blogspot.com via Wildwood Creek on Pinterest

Can it be done?  Only time will well, so stay tuned.  In the meantime, give out your thoughts on making this dining room something to enjoy!

Creative Canoe Storage

As some of you might recall, I'm spending my first summer in DC.....in Alabama.  Where the military sends me, I shall go.  However, I left strict instructions with Mr. Move-a-Lot to take care of everything while I was gone (dog, cats, house, car, baby....and my garden!)  So you can guess which one gets ignored (No, it's not the baby.)

I returned for a 24 hour trip last weekend to find my lovely backyarden (It's kind of a back yard, kind of a garden,. Do you see what I did there?) full of weeds, one dead hosta, and that stupid canoe still on the ground.  I had left half of it mulched, and a bag of unopened mulch still sat baking in the hot DC sun. 

All I wanted, and have wanted for a while, was to do a little trimming, and to put that canoe somewhere.  So, Mr. Move-a-lot dragged out the tools we bought to do this project weeks and weeks ago, and we were off!

Drill, Hook Thingies, Yard Clippers

Mr. M went to town on the canoe while I tried to salvage my yard.

Hook Things go in the fence

No hope for the hosta

Two quick drills in the fence, and one double-person lift, and the canoe was up off the grass it was smothering and hanging on our fence!  I spent some time trimming, and Mr. M. weed-whacked our yarden until it was looking moderately better.  I even put that 2nd bag of mulch out (of course, I still need more to finish the whole thing) but it looks much better now, and we are proud of our creative canoe storage.

Now, if only he'd let me paint something pretty on the bottom of the canoe.....

What's a creative storage solution you've had to invent on the fly???

Hey, that's my house!

Yep, there it is!  And you can see it yourself on HOTPADS where it is currently up for rent.

There is something eerie about seeing a house that you re modeled, brought home your first child, bought for the first time, had holidays in, threw parties in, etc up for grabs on the internet with all the other houses.  No pictures could possibly reflect the pain that went into painting over wallpaper and the refreshing sense of pride I got every time I looked at the completed dining room.  You wouldn't know that my husband spent most of December tearing up and putting back in the bathroom floor while I desperately tried to make an old bathroom look as modern as possible.  No one can tell that I bought 47 different kitchen knobs in an effort to de-flower a kitchen that was covered in flowers.  Or how peaceful I was waking up knowing that I could walk to the ocean with my dog and be there in less than 10 minutes.  Or how safe I felt knowing the old couple across the street was keeping a protective watch on everything.

Anyway, I can't write more, or I'll cry on my keyboard.  I just hope we get some great people living there!

Sweet Hotel Living

Greetings from the Dirty South: Alabama!  I'm here for NINE WEEKS for an Air Force School, and while the temperatures outside might be enough to make you cry, the digs are pretty great.  Here's my new pad.

Itty Bitty Kitchen

This is the little kitchen that comes with all the dishes you need, plus a stovetop and a fridge.  I THINK there's a garbage disposal as well.  The downside is no oven, which I find I use a lot of as I learn to cook, but that's ok.  The single server coffee is pretty sweet.

Comfy-ish

My living room consist of this little love seat, desk, flat screen, and nice big window.

Bedroom with a nice cushy bed and...another tv!  Mr. Move-a-Lot will NOT let me put a TV in our room, for good reason.  I watched TV last night and stayed up way too late.  Lesson learned.  Well, probably not learned.  More like "Lesson realized."

Walk in closet?  Yes, please.

Here's some of my favorite (and not so favorite) design things already in the room.

I love this square lamp and the lines carved out of the base.  It reminds me of those stones in The Fifth Element.  I feel like saying "MULTIPASS" every time I look at it.  I am digging the rectangle lampshade that dares to be longer than it is tall.  There's a tall one in the living room and a small one in the bedroom

These curtains are nice and shimmery and have a slight blue/tan/brown palette that doesn't yell at you, but subtly suggests some color.

I love this brown blanket - sleek and shiny.

What am I NOT ok with?  All the pictures of jets.  I get it, it's the Air Force, but come on, I'm not even a pilot!  Planes planes everywhere.

I haven't put a lot of personal touches, because I'm still in a "neato it's a hotel!" phase.  Which, by the way, the BEST part is that I have a maid come and clean up after me.  FOR NINE WEEKS.  Heaven.  I did put some picture of the Move-a-Lot families out and about.

My only real personal touches as of yet.

So, any recommendations for making this place more homey over the next nine week?  I'm thinking of putting something OVER the pictures, like a gauzy scarf or something.....any more ideas?

I have a love and I call him Mulch.

I can't believe I once didn't know mulch existed.  It's delicious smelling, gorgeous, and probably good for plants, but did I mention how pretty it is?  I'm currently obsessed with red mulch, which is what I used on the front area of our house (see it here).  I decided to continue this awesomeness in our backyard.

As I posted earlier this month I've been working on the backyard with some help from the folks.  Now that everything was trimmed back, it was ready for some of that beautiful mulch.  Here are some before-and-afters to show off my mulch!

Nice, right?  Take a look at some more!

Anyway, not that exciting of a post, but I did a little happy mulch dance in my backyard with only my dog as a witness because I was so happy with the outcome.

Oh yeah, remember this product that I bought to try?

Well, there's good news and bad news.  The good news is, I'm not being eaten alive by mosquitos anymore.  The bad news is that the spray took me by surprise, and my hosta plant was the unfortunate victim here.

A moment of silence, please.

This brave little hosta got sprayed and is on its deathbed, but I appreciate his willingness to still provide purple flowers and turns a lovely bright yellow color to give my garden some more UMPH on his way out.  We'll miss you, dear friend.

Scary or Cute? I say Cute!

I've been vulturing around wall decals for a while, and frankly, I find most of them cheesy.  I am sure they look fabulous in all of your houses, but I haven't seen anything that I really wanted to put on a wall.  I'm not into cliche quotes, I don't need hearts all over my walls, you get the idea.

Then, on a random "I don't really need anything but here I am" trip to Target, I found these little birds-on-a-wire on clearance and immediately pictured our guest room done up in gorgeous tans and browns with big birds where the headboard is supposed to be (and isn't).  Of course, I bought them for $10 and found that the big birds on a wire were actually teeny tiny birds on a wire that wouldn't fill an eighth of the space I wanted.

But fear not! I found a home for them.  I love the idea of guests pulling down a cheap little blind and finding a surprise!

What surprise is lurking in this window?

Birdies on a wire!

A closeup.  I'm in love with these little birds that will watch over my guests.

My concern was that they were a little too creepy in a "we're watching you" sort of way, but I think they are kinda adorable.

Have you ever done a little surprise in a room for people to discover? 

A Yankee moves South

Since I've been in my new place for one month, I figure it's time to move-a-long.  Yes, this Move-a-lot is headed to the Dirty South for 9 weeks while I do some Air Force training at Maxwell Air Force Base.

So, what to take to make myself feel at home?  One the list:

• A plant
• lots of pictures of Mr. and Baby Move-a-Lot
• My own comforter and pillow
• My little bowl that holds my wedding ring because I'm terrified to wear it when I wash my hands or shower
• My laptop (of course!)

 What else should I take?  What would YOU take?