Head over to the gardening section of the blog to find a new trick I just learned for keeping weeds at bay in your gardens!
Years ago I moved from a townhouse with an amazing brick wood-burning fireplace into an apartment that didn't have a fireplace at all. I loved having a fire - the warmth, the crackling, the ambiance, but I also loved the decorating aspect of the fireplace. It just adds such warmth to the room (not meaning the actual fire!), makes it feel homey, and I have such fun changing up what goes on the mantel with the seasons.
A man that I was dating at the time of living in the apartment and missing my fireplace surprised me by building me an artificial fireplace! He went to Home Depot and got all kinds of wood as well as artificial brick sheeting, and built that sucker right in his driveway and gave it to me as a gift! What a sweetheart!
It is small but sweet and I have really enjoyed it over the years. Here is a photo of it from last fall:
So now I am in the process of completely redoing my den, which is where the fireplace resides. I have found the color scheme and style that I want to use in the den, and am ready to go! I spent last weekend painting the walls Martha Stewart's Rhododendron Leaf green. The color is fairly dark and I will need lots of white accents to brighten the room up. I took one look at my dark fireplace and realized that white might look nice against the green wall, and I do like the look of white brick.
So I took it outside, primed it, and painted the whole thing white. Wowza - it took four or five coats of white paint to not leave streaks on those "bricks"! Now I still need to find new things to put on it, but here it is, and I am loving it! So much potential:
In case you're wondering, the walls are green, the floors will be oak, the furniture a lightish brown, and red accents such as throw pillows, flowers, decor. Then white is a must for light reflection - the fireplace, the bookshelves, maybe entryway and window frames. I cut a window between the den and kitchen since my house sits almost exactly East/West. Now light can spill from one room to the other, whether its morning or afternoon. My color scheme inspiration came from Living Room Pictures (the sixth picture from the top). Anyway, lots more to share in the coming days!
Just a quick post to show what I did with all of our Wii remotes and game system chargers. I have been working on redoing the den. I found a color scheme that I want to go with and have been updating the den accordingly.
{Sorry for the poor quality - I just snapped the photos with my phone.}
See that blue blue puzzle box? I acquired it in one of those "Oh, this is free . . . I can find something to do with it!" moments. Bad Tanya. Anyway, we were previously just throwing all of our electronic wires/remotes stuff in there and it was on the bottom shelf of a bookcase near the television. It worked well but the color definitely does not belong in my new redo for the den!
See the cute little woven basket? I decided I could somehow use that and it would be pretty. I cut a piece of cardboard to be a separator between all of the Wii remotes and the chargers, so the kids can find what they need a wee bit easier. WEE bit easier for the WII stuff, ha ha! {Yes, I am such a dork.} Anyway, see:
Then I had my young one's DS, games, pens, etc. in a little blue basket on top of some books on the other bookcase. No more blue, I tell you. And no stacking. I am trying to go really clean and simple here. So I put all of his things in a little round basket next to this one. Viola! Our little system shelf with baskets:
So clean and neat. Mama is pleased! Now let's see how long it stays this way. ;)
I was flipping through my Spring Pottery Barn catalog, and found some decorating ideas that I thought were really neat and easy to do. So I headed out to my Dollar Tree and sure enough, found some goodies to bring one of the ideas to life:
Yep, the bag of moss-covered rocks was $1! I also bought three pretty glass vases, each for $1.
Then I headed over to Michael's craft store to look for some kind of artificial leafy plant, and I found this nice fern at 40% off, making it just $2.50! I snipped some branches off, put it all together, and ended up with this:
{Wow, this lighting makes the glass vases look smudgy!}
The only thing left was to decide where to put them! I recently acquired a china cabinet and put it in my kitchen. I put a few odds and ends in it - a Biscotti jar, a last supper picture, a porcelain pitcher, a few gardening books. I need to find other things to put in it and this might be a nice addition, so I tried it out:
Yep, I love it!It looks so great, and now I just need a few more items for the china cabinet!
