This is clearly what I am tackling all week (um, month?), because there is no way to get it all done today! But, here’s what I’m up to. [After I wrote this I realized that our camera is in the car... in the parking lot of NP's office. Come back and visit to see the pics!]

Remember our room redo project? We’ve made great headway – NP built a beautiful headboard out of bifold doors he bought at the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore, some crown molding, and trim. Isn’t it great? [Imaginary picture #1 here]

Our dust ruffle is finished (which of course did not go quite as smoothly as planned), and I have one curtain panel done. Today I want to get the other curtains sewn… we’re so close! After the curtains are up, I just need to press the duvet cover and “spruce things up.” NP is still working on our bedside tables… and maybe we should hang something on the walls! [Imaginary picture #2 here]

I’m also in the process of going through our cabinets and cupboards and doing spring cleaning/ organizing. Yesterday I got the bottom shelf done in my main food cupboard – now I need to do the other shelves. [Imaginary picture #3 here]

I’m also cleaning out things that I want to put in our garage sale this summer as I go – we need to simplify and I’m in the mood to purge! So, after the kitchen cabinets are in order I’ll be moving on to closets, and (dare I say it?) the attic. It ain’t pretty, folks!

It’s Tuesday – what are you tackling today?

Our family is in the midst of a big project – the master bedroom re-design. We’ve had white or beige walls everywhere we’ve lived since we were married almost 7 years ago. We’ve been using a duvet cover that we made out of drop-cloths that we bought at Home Depot all that time! It was a clever solution to our lack of money and it looked acceptable… but we’re definitely over it! Along with the drop-cloth duvet cover we had curtain panels I made out of muslin and grossgrain ribbon. One word: f-a-n-c-y. Perhaps a better word would be u-g-l-y. But, it was cheap! :)

Last year when we needed a dresser for LB, I found some matching dressers on ebay (from a local seller) for the bargain price of $66.00 – for both! They looked pretty rough when we got them, but old english worked wonders! Two years ago we bought a beautiful $400 duvet cover on clearance for $50! (We’ve been keeping it in our closet – it seemed wrong to use it with the muslin curtains and white walls.) We found some decorator fabric on sale at JoAnn fabrics for $4.50 a yard, and NP bought some old bifold doors at our local Habitat for Humanity Restore and is making a headboard. (we’ve been using a bed that some friends had sitting in their garage!) We found out that we get a great discount at Sherwin Williams because NP’s aunt’s husband works at a different Sherwin Williams store – weird, but yes please! It’s coming together, folks!

But, projects like this are a process. Especially with 2 small kids, me being gone last weekend for the women’s retreat, and just daily life. Here is what our bedroom looks like at the moment.

AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!! It is actually much worse than that picture could capture, but it is a huge improvement over a couple of days ago when the dressers were both about 4″ from the bed and you had to sort of catapult in and out. All of this upheaval in our room has spilled out into the hallway. It has been hard to put clothes away, so guess where all of my laundry baskets and piles, along with all of the things we usually store under our bed, are? [insert scary movie sound effects here]

So tranquil and orderly, right? It’s making me CRAZY! So, after my kids are up from their naps I am tackling the piles/ bins/ baskets/ room. It won’t really be put together until our room is done, but we still have to live here in the meantime!

If you are at all intrigued with the bedroom redesign, I’ll post pics when we’re done. Hopefully that will be in the near, and not distant, future.