Showing posts with label change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label change. Show all posts

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Live: Back At It










Soooo, I took a little (long) break from blogging. At first it was unintentional and then it was because I wasn't really sure I wanted to write in this space anymore. But here's the thing, I kinda missed it here. I missed having a way to share what I'm interested, the books I'm loving, the things I'm making and the food I'm baking. However I want to come back with things a little different. I'm going to be getting a little more personal and little less linky. Expect less stuff and more life, fewer posts about things I saw on the internet and more about things I actually did, there will still be projects and recipes, but they will be projects I've done and food I've cooked. Basically the blog is evolving from a blog about anything to a blog about everything! I hope you enjoy my new purpose, I know I for one am really looking forward to the new Building Something Good.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Change: The Living Room Is Almost Done (finally)








I picked up this painting from a yard sale that benefits the local historical society.
I'm even into the chipping.



It has finally happened. After being in my house for 4 years the living room has been painted. And all I can say is: why did I wait so long? I can't believe that I lived with that horrid light and color sucking purple for so long. Over the last 4 years I've painted swatches of light green, grays and buttery creams on the walls, but in the end I settled on a slightly warm white, Sherwin Williams Marshmallow. It is amazing how much better my living room looks now, it makes me happy every time I walk in the room. And because this room is the center of my home, I feel like it has made the rest of the house look better too.


The mood board I made a while ago finally coming to life. 



Of course there are still a few changes left to be made. The trim still needs to be painted, I want to redo the club chairs in a navy velvet (so they look a little more like the one above from West Elm) and I think that the wall with the Hi-Fi needs some art. But over all things are really looking good over here. Don't cha think?!?

P.S. The big before post if you want to know what the house looked like the day I bought it.

P.P.S. A whole lot more house-y stuff.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Inspire: March


Woohoo another month, another chance to share a few of the good things I've found around the internet. Ready? Okay!

Listen: The Joy the Baker Podcast - so fun, I feel like Joy & Tracy are like the big sisters I never had.

Change: See Something Say Something by A Blog About Love - share the love, help someone have a better day.

Live: The Six Types of Friends Everyone Should Have - how many of these types of friends do you have?

Celebrate: My Party Closet by Oh Happy Day - be ready to throw a party at a minutes notice.

Decorate: Amazing Printable Vintage Prints - did I mention they are free!?! I am equal parts fascinated by & creeped out by this octopus print.

Make: Crochet Llama - so adding this guy to my to hook list.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

January 2013



I don't know about you, but I am feeling really ready for a New Year. My friend Amanda calls days like New Year's Day reset days and I know exactly what she means. It is a chance to sit back and evaluate what is going on in your life, decide to keep the good and toss the bad and refocus on the changes to come in the year ahead. For me that will means I am taking some time to really look over my priorities for the next year - for my home, career, budget and life. As well as organization, de-cluttering and deep cleaning.

Now, for January I am looking forward to sharing with you some fun projects involving winter white, stars and patchwork. I'm also thinking about bright music for winter nights, citrus and retellings of classic tales.

Hooray Bring on 2013!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Change: Living Room Mood Board


Do you remember how last week in the post about my new couch I said that I thought that the new couch would most likely lead to some trickle down redecorating? Well I can't get the idea off replacing some of the light pinks and blues in my living room with bright and rich Fuchsia and  Navy Blue. And there needs to be more brass in the room - for sure!

Couch - My own read all about it here

Some of the items in the mood board represent things I already have (brass elephant, cage lamp, yellow chair) and some I want to diy (pillows, throw) and others I just wish I had (rug)!

This moodboard was created atmydeco.com

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Change: Painting Projects

(Polka Dot House from Life Magazine via Paper Pastries)
It is almost embarrassing how bad I am about picking a paint color and painting a wall. I waver and stall and then end up with nothing. So I thought it might be helpful if I sat down and made a list of all the painting I still want to do at my house, with an idea of the color I want to go with.

Living Room and Front Entry - Light Creamy Ivory (on the yellow side)
Guest Room -  Light Gray (I already have the paint for this so it is for sure on my to do list)
Kitchen, Dining Room and Hall - Bright White, with a surprise or two
Basement Stair - Gray
Basement - Gray and Limey Green
Front Door - Kelley Green!

Does anyone else have paint relate problems? What about a fear of picking the wrong color?

Friday, September 28, 2012

Change: New Couch!

That's right I have finally checked a big thing off of my home improvement list. I got a new (to me) full sized couch. I have been wanting a larger couch since moving into my little house, but I had a few requirements that it needed to meet. It needed to be long enough for an adult to lay down and watch a movie (or nap) on, it needed to petite enough to fit in my 1940's living room and needed to have upholstery in good condition that I could live with for a while until I have the time/money/where with all to recover it. So this is what I found to finally give me that much needed 6th seat in my living room. A petite, but long enough for napping sunny yellow couch in great condition.
The facts of the find are these:
I actually saw the couch on Craig's List a few weeks before I bought it and thought it was cute, but I was trying to connect with a guy selling an amazing Pink 60's MCM couch. Sadly I was never able to actually see the couch, so I kinda gave up not only on that couch, but on getting a new one at all. Enter Labor Day Weekend, my girlfriends and I decided to grab breakfast and hit up a weekly thrift sale in our area. While there my cousin Lydia spotted the couch and called me over. In real life it was a) cuter than in the CL posting b) the perfect size for my house and c) supper comfy to sit on. Great, sold! But it gets better, while I was pondering how I would get it home and what I would do with my old couch, one of the volunteers that run the sale came over and asked if I was interested in the couch when I told her I was thinking about it she disappeared  to return moments later saying that because I couch had been there for a while they would take only $65 instead of the already reduced asking price of $85. Hummm sold again!
So I found away to get it home (a harrowing tale for another day), made space to temporarily store the old couch in my guest room and wrangled a brother to help me move both couches. Right away I knew that this couch was begging for lots of pillows, these are only place holders, but I think you get the idea. It fits perfectly along the wall, but as is always the case when you change one thing I expect that there will be some trickle down redecorating happening over the next few months.
Maybe you can identify a few of the things needed a tweaking in this shot with the chair and coffee table moved back into place. The only thing I really miss about having the old couch is the big shot of teal it brought into the room. I am defiantly going to need to bring more saturated colors into the space now that it is gone.
 
And now just for fun how about a little walk down memory lane of my time with my little free teal couch. Here she is in my pre-homeowner apartment days. This picture is from shortly after I moved in, note the lack of wall art and funky dorm room lamp. This was also in the days when I was in love with my wool shag rug, but for I knew that it was going to be like owning a pet that shed all over you and your house. Sign, but it is so cozy! Hummm this picture has me wondering if that coffee table is still in the basement of my old building (owned by my parents and aunt and uncle), I totally have a place for it in my current basement.
And finally here is a horridly bad picture of my living room before I moved the couch to the wall and with a really out of place bright red, orange and green painted that has been given a new home.

So what do you think? Good buy? Worth the 65 bones? Are you creeped out by used furniture? Do you love a good thrifting deal? Share and feel free to leave a link to a great thrifted find of your own, I love celebrating a good deal!

Monday, August 6, 2012

Change: A Little Tweeking

I've been tweeking things around here. Changing up the colors - for something kinda inspired by my favorite pin. And adding a more user friendly about and contact section. So far I am diggin' the changes! Anyone else up to some blog tweeking this summer?

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Change: 4 Frame Re-Dos

I like to fill my guest bedroom with pictures of the smiling faces of my loved ones. So I'm always on the look out for smallish frames. There are a lot of really cute frames out there, but they are often more than I am willing to spend. There are also a lot of really less than cute or boring frames out there, those are the ones in my price rang. So with that in mind I've been collecting some small scale frames that I could easily refinish. Each of my frames cost less than a dollar and I already had everything I used to redo them in my stock of crafty supplies, so the total project cost was only about $3.50!
Frame #1 got a few layers of gray spray paint.

And a picture of my cute niece doing her best to be Fancy (you know, like Nancy)!
For frame #2 I used some enamel paint, in a light pink and gold.
 It got a picture of my little cousin Fiona swinging around like the monkey that she is!
Frame #3 is my favorite, this tiny blue frame was wrapped in some flowery washi tape (am I the only one that reads that word as Wasabi?). This site isn't where I got mine, but they do have the same tape and a lot of other cuties.

An image of Fiona's older brother Ben as a wee lad was tucked in to finish it off.
Finally I decided that I really liked the gold frame just the way it was so I just popped in a picture of Fiona and Ben's younger brother Jo and it was all set.

 So there you have it, four cute and cheap frames and all finished in less than an hour! Have you been doing any quick refinishing projects?

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Pinterest Challenge: Ombre Nightstand

TA-DA The day has come for the reveal of my Winter Pinterest Challenge. And guys I'm not gonna lie this is one of my favorite projects that I have done for my house. Plus it challenged me to get over my painting wood phobia. Once I got going it wasn't so bad.
This is my original inspiration pin - Pink Ombre Cake made by Eddie Ross. You can check out some more of my pinspiration for this project in Monday's post.
And this is what I did. I picked up three paint testers from my local paint store. Then painted each drawer in a descending color.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
And with that we are one step closer to the Guest Room make over reveal!

P.S. You can find lots of other Pinterest Challengers work by checking out the Pinterest posts on Young House Love, Bower Power, The Great Indoors and Hi Sugarplum.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Change: 100

At the beginning of the year I was inspired by this post over on Makeunder My Live to get rid of 100 things that were cluttering up my life. It took me a few weeks to pull all the items together, but I can say that with out a doubt it was totally worth it.
Maybe a quarter of the things were leftover from all the junk in the house when I bought it. Stuff that I thought at the time I might use, but alimentary just ended up hanging around taking up space.
At first I thought I'd make a list of everything, but now that seems a little silly and boring. I think these four images are enough to remind me to move things along a little quicker.
Finally I had such a good time (really truly it was fun!) putting together these vignette of 25 Things to Dump I'm going to keep up with the challenge and get rid of 25 more things each month for the rest of 2012. Next week I'll post about February and March's items.

Did you do any big clean out for 2012? What do you do to keep clutter at bay? Any good junk reducing challenges you can share? I'd love to hear all about it so please, please share.
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