Girly Closet Makeover

This is MY closet.  It is a little bit of a mess and in need of some serious spring cleaning, but I love it.  I love having a place of my own to keep MY stuff.  With four kids and husband it's hard to find a space of your own.  The only thing I don't like (other than the mess) is that it's not big enough for a chair.  I swear on some days I would lock myself in there and read if I had a chair....maybe it's a good thing I don't have room for a chair.

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 On this side of my closet I keep my girls dresses.   I'm sort of a dress freak.  I love buying pretty dresses for my three girls and I am too lazy to run upstairs on Sunday mornings to find them a dress to wear, not to mention we're usually running late, so I find my closet is the best place for them.  Plus it makes me smile to see them. 

 Now as I said the closet works well usually, but it's not pretty.  And I like pretty.  So I decided to make a change.

I'd say it needs one wouldn't you.

 So I pulled e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g out and cleaned up the floor.

 I  was amazed at what was in this room.  I thought I took a pic, but couldn't find it.  Then I decided on a color scheme.  I have been hitting the oops paint isle at Lowe's lately and there has been a lot of grays.  So I combined them and came up with a grey I loved.  Then I thought of hot pink, and got my favorite shoes as my inspiration.  And here is what I have.

 A grey and hot pink color scheme with black and white accents. 

This is what it looked like before I put everything back in.  I'm not sure at this point if I love it yet or not. But then....

 It came together and I love it.

 Everything has it's place and I love how the hot pink pops.

 I added a new shelf for the top where I put my clothes that are out of season and a bag.  I think my favorite thing is the new hooks I added to hang my belts and jewelry.

 All of my things are in coordinating baskets and my 31-accessories that are so pretty have a place to be when not in use.  I plan on spray painting that blue basket to hot pink.

 I added more hooks for my Premier jewelry that a friend of mine sells.

I'm put my daughter's beach hats up for decoration.

 A small place was left to put the few handbags that I love so much I can't part with.  I even got the dresser looking pretty with a few things from around the house.

The only draw back that I can think of is that everyone else loves it too.  I can't keep the kids out of it and my hubby wants me to do his next.

 Cuteness.

I love it and I'm so proud that I did all the work myself!!!.

Here's a break down of what it cost.

Valspar gallon grey paint $6 (oops table, $1 can and $5 can combined)

Valspar  pint pink paint -$13

3-black and white lidded basket $16.50

large black and white basket $5

blue basket $7.50

pink and white polka dot basket $4.50

everything else I already had including board and hooks

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total $52.50

I'm linking up to

My Romanic Home 

Just A Girl

Beneath My Heart

A Little Bit of Love

I've just done a little bit of Valentines decorating  this year.  I've put a few things out, but I'm sure I'll get more in the mood soon and put more out.

My heart garland that I made a few years ago has held up well.  The brances have mercury heart and star ornaments that I got on clearance at Target after Christmas a few years ago.  I only use them for Valentines decor.

This is my spring/Valentines wreath that I made recently.  I just took an old grapevine wreath that I had used many times before.  It is full of hot glue from past decorations wrapped it with an old burlap bag that I cut into strips and added a metalic bow and some pink butterflies.  This was super cheap.  I already had the wreath and the burlap bags.  The butterflies and and ribbon was all 90% off at Michaels.  So I spent less than $1 on the wreath.  Happy Valentines Decorating!!!

Halloween Spookiness

I love, love, love Halloween and I love to decorate for it.  Every year I bring out all my stuff and for the most part I try to put it in a different place.  This year was no different except I did have a bit more help with Emmy and Elise getting all the stuff out and trying to decorate with it.  It was so fun and here is the end result.  Don't be scared it's only pictures.  Here goes....

Den Spookiness

My little pumpkin lady and "autumns" chalkboard.

My bay window is a little hard to see because of all the wonderful light coming in, but I think it's my favorite this year.  It has my BOO pumpkins and my spookified wreath.  Not to mention all the blood and gore on the windows.

This is Ally's favorite vignette.  She is forever kissing on all three of my "ladies and gentleman".

 This bird cage with the cat inside is part of my bay window vignette.  It is my favorite.  I love how the crows have trapped the mean cat inside. 

 It can't be spooky without an urn full of skulls and moss.

My mantel has only a few touches with a few pumpkins, my kid's countdown to Halloween chain, and the "spooky" sing.

This is just the centerpiece on the table in the den, or as we like to call it the things my kids throw at each other on a daily basis.  Moving on...

Dinning Room Spookiness

 I love the spider web on the mirror. 

 I use Emmy's old PB witches hat as part of the decorations since she can't wear it anymore.

 The centerpiece on our dining room table.  I got the orange candlestick holders and urn from PB two years ago on clearance.  I paid less than $20 for all three pieces.  Perfect for my Halloween decor.  I also got the beautiful toile tablecloth from consignment a few years ago for $20.  It's one of my favorite things.

 A little spooky on the shelf.

And a little spooky under the shelf. 

Staircase Spookiness

 The staircase is where I stick all the stuff I didn't have a place for int the rest of the house.  I love the garland on the stairs and surprisingly my husband does too.  He told me last year that it looks so much better with the decorations on the stairs.  I was surprised because he's not a Halloween freak like me.

 This pumpkin use to be a door hanger until my kids tore it up.  Now it's in my garland.  I couldn't throw it away because it was too cute.  I got it from the dollar tree one year.  I wish they would have them again, but I haven't seen them since.

The finished product.  Not such a good picture, but it really is cute.

And last but not least....

Laundry Room Spookiness

Winnine the Witch on the shelp that holds our aprons.

And our boo bat hanging from the ceiling.

I've also decorated the outside, garage, and bedrooms, but haven't gotten around to taking pictures yet.  Maybe I'll get to it before Halloween is over. 

Happy Fall Ya'll

Photo Wall Complete...

Well, almost complete. I still have one row, but I can't reach it and I'll have to get my husband to hang the pics and that may take a while. But I am happy with the progress so far.
First, I laid out my frames to see how I liked it best.

Then I realized I didn't have the patience for it and just started hanging them. Since I did a staggered arrangement it turned out well even with my unorganized method.

I love having something for my eye to look at when going up and down the stairs. That way I don't notice all the other things I dislike about the stairway when I'm having to use the stairs.

A much better view.

To Photo Wall or Not To Photo Wall?

This is probably the single most hated feature of our current house. It's definitely in the top five. It's our staircase. Our staircase is positioned right at our front door and it is kind of closed it. It's narrow and I don't like how the ceiling drops down about midway the staircase. I also hate the fact that our painter totally ignored my request to use semi-gloss paint when the painted our house and used flat instead. I'm sure you can see all the dirt and smudges that my kids and their friends leave when going up and down the stairs.

See this is the drop down ceiling. I do thing this is the biggest reason why I hate the staircase.

We did update it when we moved in. We took the carpet off the stairs, painted and stained them. We also replaced the wooden spindles with iron ones that I totally love. These changes helped a lot, but not enough.

This is a shot from the top of the stairs looking down. The woman who grew up in the house and whose dad built the house came to see what changes we had made and she loved that we chose a door with glass in it because it was way too dark with just a solid wood door that they had when she was growing up. I can't imagine. It really is a dark entry and there aren't even any outlets to plug a lamp into. As you see I have a lamp, but I have a drop cord running to the plug outside. My husband LOVES that, not.

Now this is a shot of the hated drop down. I want to do a picture wall up the stairs and I don't know if I should extend it to the drop down part of the ceiling. I had a friend who has this and she put a cute picture that her soon had done at school. It looked really good, but she didn't have anything on the side wall. What do you think? I'll have to try it and see what looks the best and maybe have a lot of my families smiling faces to look at when I'm walking up the stairs will take my mind away from how much I hate the staircase.

Bathroom Essentials

My husband's aunt that lives in California is visiting this month and Sunday she asked if I could find some pretty things to put her bathroom essentials in. She wanted ones like I have in my bathroom and I was excited to help. I love decorating projects and this is a simple one. The hardest part is going to be for Aunt Linda to fly these glass apothecary jars back to California and not get them broken. Good luck with that.

I'm going to let her pick what combination she wants. They're all so cute and I was planning on taking back the ones she doesn't want, but I may end up keeping them.

I also love white dishes and bowls, so I like to add them into the mix.

I also think putting the apothecary jars on a white platter makes it more uniform and adds much needed texture.

So pretty.