it has been a while...

guess what... "i actually took holidays"... as this is certainly not a common around our house, work is always "on"... but the past couple months i have found myself sinking, and i knew that a break was either something i was going to have to choose to take, or it would be chosen for me! so i picked the last week of July and it just spilled right on into august.

so in my mind i had all sorts or plans of the amazing projects i was going to complete and what i was all going to be able to clean and organize... so where do i start ?? ...
firstly...the bench is finished! after some hunting around for the right fabric, foam, and tools required to construct the look of a bench i was looking for... i sat one evening sipping my favorite "husband made latte" and i found this pretty futon in the sears catalog... i showed my absolutely handsome husband (did i mention he makes the worlds best latte - no seriously lets side track here a little... have you ever had a latte with foam so thick on top that is it actually meringue... well my sweets steams and creates to absolute perfection that the caramel has no where to go but to sit on top of the meringue foam like a golden crown... mmmmmmm)
okay so the futon measured 71" and our opening was 72", made of black pleather - so it had good cleaning possibilities... so i ordered "shirley" and she arrived three days later (nice and fast yippee)... so we did a couple alterations to the current bench as the legs provide with the futon where to short, so we put her on the old bench base and ta da!!!

bench before....


bench during....


bench after....


then my sweetie hung the mirror (extremely heavy), i added a couple throw cushions.... and done!



next on the list was our room... it is still a work in progress, i have decided to keep the night tables and create something entirely new with them... so that will be a later update.

before...


currently...


so again, sears came to the rescue and i found this bed at a great price, totally suited the "sit up and read in bed" need, it is p "leather" so no cloth to attract and hold the dust (allergy and asthma issues), the bedding is still in the works, i saw a beautiful white coverlet at HomeSense last week that would totally fit my wish list - and it was on the sale rack as of yesterday - however still a little more than i was hoping to pay, so i will have to keep checking back (the ralph lauren maltesse will certainly do for now - i am sure my sweetie is cringing as he reads this)... and the goal is only two non essential pillows to dress up the bed with... we used to have eight, so this is a huge decrease... i am so funny - i do have a thing for pillows (did you note the fun red ones sitting on the bench in the before picture of the dining room bench - i picked those up at Pier 1 a couple weeks ago, the boys thought they were like a bundle of roses - and in a house of boys - this girl needs some big red rose pillows to balance it a bit - i am a little worried however that they may become big red rose pillow soccer balls!)

i did a lot of cleaning during my week off... wow was the house needing some TLC! It feels good to know that the baseboards are white again, railing is cleaned, floors washed, everyhting dusted, laundry caught up (was caught up anyway), and i spent many moments in the sun by the pool with the boys!

i also painted rock-e's room... so our old bed went to his room (he has been begging for a big bed for years - he is such a grown up soul) but our bed was to big for his room, so the boys traded room... ummm the walls now no longer match the right bedding (E needed new bedding for the larger bed anyway - so his color was flexible) so off we went to buy paint... E picked BLACK! and A picked ORANGE! ummmmmm welll ummmmmmm okay ummmmmmm i might have to think about this a while.... but it was clear both were stuck on those colors no matter how hard i tried to sell a muted green and a light ocean blue or grey color... so i left with a pail of BLACK and ORANGE...

i started with the black mostly out of curiosity...

before...


after...


i used behr ultra and i have to say... i am so disappointed that i did not go with my usual Aura paint... this paint was horrible to work with, yes it was hot and humid outside, but i had the air on in the house so it was cool, and it just didn't matter what i did, you saw every brush stroke/roller (and i have good painting tools so that was not the issue)... it was so disappointing... so the can of orange paint is just sitting there waiting to be used but i just didn't have the energy for painting another room last week, so i will try in a couple weeks - hoping that maybe the humidity outside might go down and perhaps have some positive effect on the painting. so to remedy the brush and roller marks I am planning a gallery of prints on the two larger walls in the "black" room, and for now he has our old white bedding to brighten it up... which even for this young guy will probably stay white - he is such a neat little guy. the room does look great, we have a lot of white in the room being the two closet doors, the door, a large window, trim is white, and carpet is an off white/cream so i really like it... he is my little designer guy... as then he asked for this on one wall too.... so i am considering this too!