My ever-evolving Living Room

This is my living room right now...and I'm loving it! ....for now. 

I honestly don't know what is wrong with me, but I'm constantly changing things around, adding new stuff, new paintings, etc.....you get the picture. 

Maybe it's my personality...or maybe it's the fact that I'm a stay-at-home-mom and I just start to go nuts after a while when things stay the same too long. 

Whatever.

Change is good, right? And it's not like I'm spending piles of money doing it ;) 

This is how it all started...UGH.

Just horrible.

Then it went to this....I honestly don't know how I ever liked this room...but I did. 

For about a year.

Then I craved something lighter and brighter...and it turned into this...

Then "the girls" were painted, and they had a place there for a few months...

Until I decided I needed the white slipcovers. I'm still loving those, by the way :)

Then spring came, and I wanted a dose of colour. The pink camellia painting sorted out the "no colour" problem. There's something about the pink/blue combo that seriously makes me happy.

 I know...so shallow.

I'd had a love-hate relationship with the cowhide rug for a while. It was just not working for us, with a baby rolling around on it. So, I picked up this little white shag rug from IKEA for $69. It's no nice to sit on with the boys, playing cars and trucks and all the stuff we like to do :)

So there you have it....my ever-changing living room. Anyone else as ADD as me with their homes? 

Little Bedside Cabinet Makeover

I found this little gem yesterday (at my favourite thrift shop of course)...for $2.50. I mean, c'mon....what can you ever buy for $2.50? A latte? Maybe a muffin? In this case, a hideous little dark brown/shiny cabinet full of potential :)  I am so awful at remembering to take "before" pictures!!! I just can never wait to get stuck right in, and it's usually because I'm trying to get a whole piece finished during naptime. Today I was lucky...I got it done! And it looks so darn cute in Toby's bedroom. 

I mixed up another "custom" colour, from leftover paint cans in the garage. It was a mix of baby blue/black/white/celery green. I'm quite happy with how it turned out. 

To add a little interest, I taped off a sort of "checkerboard" design on the top, and painted it with my favourite blue-grey colour from the dining hutch. 

I sanded the edges for a distressed look, and added these gorgeous Anthro knobs I found on sale for $2.95! I showed Toby the three different sets of knobs I had to use, and he picked these ones :) He said they matched the best. Haha....I love how my boy can coordinate a furniture re-do!

I think it fits in perfectly in his room! Right under the cute little wooden vintage coat/hat rack I found a few weeks back (yes..you guessed it...thrift shop again). It's hand painted and I love it!

Total cost : $8.40 :)

I sometimes share my projects at: Shabby Nest's  Frugal Friday, Beyond the Picket Fence (Wednesday), Funky Junk, My Backyard Eden( Wednesday) , Tatertots and Jello (Weekend wrap-up), Somewhat Simple (Thursday), Seven Thirty Three (Thursday), My Romantic Home (Friday), Miss Mustard Seed (Furniture Friday), Fingerprints on the Fridge (Friday)

Tuesday Talent Show will be on the first Tuesday of every month!

I'm in over my head here!

As much as I love seeing all of your amazing projects every week,

 I think it's best if the Tuesday Talent Show is a monthly event :). 

I hope you'll still come and link up!! That way, you can either link all of your projects for the month, or just your favourites :) 

As it turns out, next Tuesday is the first Tuesday of the month, so it'll be on next week!

As for last week's party....here are some of the highlights :

Charity over at All Things Beautiful made this adorable little bird box (you know me and birds!). Love it!

Chania redecorated her beach cottage over at Razmataz. I love these white-washed mirrors!

Cassidy at Primitive and Proper made this beach sign out of some scrap wood. So perfect!

Kristine at The Painted Hive gave this gorgeous old chair a makeover. And she made that little footstool from scratch! (can I use that term for furniture?) :)

Please feel free to grab my Featured button if you were featured here today :)

<a href="http://myhouseofgiggles.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/ac198/myhouseofgiggles/featuredatmyhouseofgiggles-1.jpg" alt="Featured at My House of Giggles" /></a>

Thanks to everyone for linking up last week!! I hope you'll forgive me for switching up the party schedule! 

See you next week!

A typical afternoon...

Meet "Little Purry" and "Little Monkey"...

...they are Toby's faithful fan club.

 They've been set here strategically, up on their perch, watching the "big huge running bike rider" (Toby's words). "Am I still three, mom?"...."I'm so huge!"

Here he is:

And here's his most loyal fan. 

Hands down.

 He looks at his big brother with absolute wonder and amazement....and it makes all those sleepless nights and endless hours of bouncing on a yoga ball worthwhile when I see it :)

 [yes, we're in a major "going to sleep" rut and he likes to be bounced on the yoga ball]. 

Little Purry and Little Monkey started off on the chair, but soon had to be a part of the race. Of course.

Sadly, Little Monkey had a bit of a fall. Like little monkeys sometimes do. Toby said he was being too crazy.

No worries...we tucked him back in beside his purry pal and off they went again...

until...

Toby decided that they'd probably be safer on momma's knee! He set them up like this, and they looked too darn ridiculous, I just had to take a picture. :)

or two..

Sorry...totally random post....just a little peek into how I spend most of my afternoons :) In our front driveway. With my boys. xo

Front Entry gets a spring cleaning makeover

My front entry needed a bit of a makeover.....I wish I'd taken a "before" picture, but I forgot! It was dull and lifeless and the floor just didn't fit in at all. Dustin did an awesome job on the tiling job a few years back, but the "busy" nature of the floor made it difficult to decorate around. I think we've found the right wall colour now...it seems to make the floor look like it belongs....and I love it!! We used the same colour as the wall in our living/dining room (Benjamine Moore's Blue Grass)...it was actually the leftover paint from upstairs. 

We painted one wall in the duck's egg blue colour, and the rest of the walls white. It's much brighter now  and just so much more inviting! I really think the front entry should be a reflection of the rest of the house...don't you? Ours was a depressing room, with a constant pile of coats and shoes all over the place. UGH! 

I had visions of a beautiful big bench/storage seat with a shelf and hooks above for this wall on the right, but alas, it was just not going to work. There is just no good spot for it anywhere in this front entry. The door opens onto that wall and if there's anything too wide in the way, you're tripping on it to get to the stairs. Not fun! 

But never fear...IKEA came to the rescue! This shoe cabinet is perfect!!! It's only 8" deep, so it doesn't block the path to the stairs, and it actually holds quite a few pairs of shoes! I added some Anthropologie glass knobs to add a little colour to it. The IKEA shoe cabinet has "legs" at the front that are just a little too short (I had to rest the cabinet on the little ledge that happens to be there). 

After doing all this, I decided it needed a little "Art", so I started on a little art project with Toby at my side this morning :) (I'll show you his masterpiece in my next post). I wanted something light and uplifting for the front entry. I thought cherry blossoms would fit the bill. The little white bird was an afterthought :). The larger painting (on the left) is still a work in progress, but I'm just getting a feel for it here until I decide whether or not I'll add something to it. I kind of like the ocean/beachy vibe it's got right now, just plain and blue.

I'm not quite sure what I'll do about these floating legs, but I was thinking of adding another piece to lengthen them to the floor, or maybe just cutting them off altogether. Any suggestions?

These next two photos were taken before I added the two paintings. I found this little mirror at the thrift shop and I think it looks cute there, but somehow I prefer the cherry blossom painting. What do you think?

I had an extra ladder chair (it came with the two that I have at my dining room table), and I wasn't sure what to do with it, so I painted it white all over and gave it a new home in our entry.

I think my little bench seat fits in quite well on this wall :) I was going to leave the half-moon table there, but I really wanted to have somewhere to sit when putting on shoes, etc. 

I completely organized the closet, and added some coat hooks on the other wall (forgot to take a picture of them!). So now we no longer have a pile of junk in our entry! There's a proper place for everything.

SO much better! 

White Dresser finally comes upstairs

I've had this lovely dresser sitting in my garage since before Finn was born. I had painted it white and added new drawer pulls, but just didn't know where to put it! My house is lacking in storage/closet space, so I was yearning for those extra drawers (to end up stuffing full of junk, I'm sure). I found it at the thrift shop (seriously, do I ever shop anywhere else?!) for $8....it was a somewhat horrible pale yellow/gold colour. 

Anyways....I put my mom muscles to good use and Dustin and I brought her upstairs. Finally! 

So, maybe it's a little crowded in my living room now....big deal. So worth it for the storage space. And besides....I just kind of like looking at her! A perfect spot for some fresh pink tulips!

The mirror sitting on top was a classic gold/gilt style and I freshened it up with some of my dusty blue/grey paint and a bit of white paint for distressing. 

I found the lovely glass decanters at the thrift shop yesterday and I love them!

Here's the before picture of the mirror...

I sometimes share my projects at:  Poppies at Play, Domestically Speaking, , Me and My Bucket,  My Backyard Eden, Reinvented,   The Girl Creative, It's so very Cheri, A Soft Place to Land, Just a Girl, Silly Little Sparrow, Faded Charm, We did it! Wednesday, Lucky Linky Tuesday, Penny Pinching Tuesday, Life as Lori, Somewhat Simple, Blue Cricket Design, Bobby Pins Boardwalk, Creations by Kara, Today's Creative Blog, The Shabby Chic Cottage, Beyond the Picket Fence, Women Who Do It All, Thrifty Thursday, Thursday's Treasures, Frugalicious Friday, Furniture Feature Friday, Show and Tell Friday, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Shabby Nest's  Frugal Friday, Funky Junk, Tatertots and Jello, Skip to my Lou, Weekend Recap @ Between You and Me, What are Little Boys Made Of

Tuesday Talent Show #2 (and HIGHLIGHTS from last week's party!)

<a href="http://myhouseofgiggles.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/ac198/myhouseofgiggles/Talentshowbutton-1.jpg" alt="Tuesday Talent Show" /></a>

Thanks to all you talented lovelies who linked up to my first ever Tuesday Talent Show!!

 I wasn't expecting so many links in the first week, but was delighted when the great ideas kept rolling in!

Here are a few of the great projects from last week's Talent Show:


This guest bedroom over at Walnut & Ivory is just right up my alley....who wouldn't love to be a guest at her house? Her blog is as beautiful as her home!

This adorable little "grocery bag" holder from A Few of My Favourite Things caught my eye. It's so simple, and perfect for hiding that mess of plastic bags.

This cute art is made out of t-shirts! Those girls over at Lemon Tree Creations are amazing!

This little jewelry box makeover is so adorable! And isn't the bedroom amazing? Go on over to Show and Tell and take a closer look!

Can I ever resist a furniture makeover? Not a gorgeous white one with Anthro knobs from House of Smiths! 

If you were featured here, please feel free to grab my Featured button for your blog!

<a href="http://myhouseofgiggles.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/ac198/myhouseofgiggles/featuredatmyhouseofgiggles-1.jpg" alt="Featured at My House of Giggles" /></a>

Now.....on to Talent Show #2! I can't wait to see what you've all been up to this week! I've been up to my ears in rockets, and not much else!

The Usual Guidelines:

1. Please link to your post and not your general blog (just makes it easier to find the project you're sharing).

2. Please copy and paste my little Talent Show button on your site/post (or a text link), so that other people can come and visit our party as well. :)