Ta-Da Friday ~ February 19, 2010

You know you are NOT a homeschool mom anymore when you have an actual dining room.

In the years we've lived in this house, this 'formal' dining room has been a school room...a computer, a table, and four overstuffed bookcases were the decor. Accents included our French language world map, a microscope, and office supplies. Functional, yes. Valued, definitely. Pretty, not so much.

I thought for sure when Nathan graduated, I'd get to overhaul this room. But, instead our oldest and his bride moved back home for a time. The dining room became a place to display wedding gifts. Then, after baby C's arrival, a place for all the stuff babies require. A few weeks ago, my oldest son and his family moved to a place of their own...and I got an itch to re-do the room before something else came up.

Here's a before (on the day all the baby stuff moved out) Homeschool books still in place.



And after a few days of work, here's the new improved version....




I like yellows and golds, can you tell? I wanted a fresh and happy room. It's not done, of course...all that wall space needs addressing. The chairs probably will get painted black in the near future. I can so see a distressed white French country dining set in that room.

All the books are re-located into oldest son's former bedroom. I'll be going through them and having a homeschool book 'garage sale' online in the coming weeks. It's been hard to go through those books, but, somehow, moving them around has helped break some of the strings to my heart. We will always be a homeschool, love of learning family, but we don't need to keep all these books.

The Pilot Guy ended up doing all the high work on this project and did it way better than I would have.



That's my creative effort this week. We also took a couple of sunny days to prune the roses. It's been a good week. I hope yours has been fun, too.

Design notes

The Pilot Guy and I went to the Kaleidoscope of Homes yesterday. This is a builder's showcase, but not just any showcase. These are multi-million dollar homes filled with bells and whistles you didn't even know you wanted. Five of them, fully landscaped and beautifully decorated.

I noticed a couple of home design/decor trends. Dark is in. Dark woodwork, dark wooden doors, dark paneling. I'm not too impressed because I love light and bright. In one home, a bathroom in a secondary bedroom was so dark that even three light fixtures didn't dispell the gloom. I'd look mighty good in that mirror every morning because the light was so soft and dim.

Carpet is out. Great brickwork, distressed hardwoods, and rustic tiles were on the floors. A few bedrooms had carpet, but most had hardwoods and area rugs in muted colors.

The greens in the paint jobs and accessories leaned more to the mint side rather than the sage of the past few years. Quite a bit of blue paired with brown.

You aren't in fashion unless you have a mirrored exercise room. Or a built in fancy coffee machine. Or a wine closet/room/cellar. Or a huge media room. Or a flat screen in the bathroom.

Which puts us way out of fashion.

I loved the outdoor spaces, especially one charming front courtyard with a small fountain and streambed running through it. Many of the European details spoke to my love of all things French or Italian. And some of the furniture was incredible. There was this one ladies writing desk, all curves and tidy drawers. Small, but very beautiful. And could be mine for only $1500. Sigh. But, hey, this is better than last year when I fell in love with a simple green display cabinet that was only $10,000. Funny, I've survived all year without that piece of furniture.

I don't want a home that big. My favorite of the five was small at 9300 square feet. (And could be ours for a mere 2,775,000 dollars. Gulp.) I can't imagine the costs of running such a home. It was fun to see that just because it is big, fancy, and expensive, I don't necessarily want it. One of the largest and most expensive on the tour had a ghastly (to me) kitchen. It was laid out so that the only way to function in there would be to have caters come in often. Really. I don't know how anyone, even a hired chef, could manage.

Touring there did make me want to clean out more of our corners and showcase the prettiness we already have in our abode. Filling a home with memories, beautiful treasures from travels, and comfort are enough of a goal for me. I picked up a few new decorating and landscaping ideas to play with in the coming months.

I love filling my creative soul with new colors, shapes, textures, and ideas. I hope you find a way to do the same this weekend.

A Little Christmas Tour, 2007

Join me for a little Christmas tour.

The fireplace and Christmas tree




Every ornament on our tree has been collected over our thirty years of marriage. In fact, we have an ornament from our first year of dating. The Pilot Guy made one for us at a fund-raiser at the college we attended. That blue ball is precious and often the first ornament we hang on the tree.




Naturally, we have an ornament for each son every year, too. Some years have more ornaments representing them than others. During our travels in Europe we collected all sorts of things to use as ornaments from each country we visited. Key chains were pressed into service often, but we also have our ski lift passes from skiing in the French Alps, and an authentic Austrian cow bell.





Ornaments that are hand made are very special.

I made these red fans with my mother. We were outside the isolation chamber my dad was in while in the hospital in Houston.



Popsicle airplanes we made when Kevin was nine and Nathan was four.



One of my most precious possessions is this Santa face. My mother drew and colored this guy when she was pregnant with me. This Santa is celebrating 51 Christmas's this year.


Thanks for taking a bit of a tour this morning. It is pouring rain out, so no outdoor decor for the moment.

By the way, today Karla over at Karla's Cottage is having a party. If you want to see more holiday blogs, hop on over and check it out. http://karlascottage.typepad.com/karlascottage/2007/12/its-party-time.html?cid=93285780#comment-93285780

Thanks again for visiting!