Has anyone else noticed that the much anticipated new season of Hoarders has been moved from Monday, August 13 to Sunday, August 26? I'm so disappointed that I have to wait another 15 days! Seriously this is my favorite TV show. Hoarders is gross and fascinating and makes me feel like cleaning and getting rid of things. I just love it. I watch only a few TV shows (I haven't owned a TV for years). I usually watch on Hulu.com but Hoarders I have to watch on AETV.com. They have the episode online a day or two after it airs but only for a few weeks.
**UPDATE**
It looks like the season premier has been delayed until October now. Nooooooo!
Friday, August 10, 2012
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Prints in the Living Room Update
Do you remember what the living room looked like? I went through this stage where I was trying out no rug in the living room. It felt more expansive since there were no lines breaking up the space. However it felt cold and unfinished. Not too long after this picture was taken I put the rug back.
The art on the walls is my sons. They are several paintings from when he was in summer art school at the Art Institute of Chicago. They were colorful and made by my son so I loved them. I've been ready for a change for awhile but didn't know what to put in their place. I wanted something bigger. The prints are hung too high in relationship to the couch. I have plaster walls and didn't want to move and patch and paint for new screws on the walls. And it had to be pretty inexpensive.
Back in December I found a couple pictures on clearance at Bed Bath and Beyond. I don't even have a picture of them. The frames were black and nice and thick. They were plastic but you couldn't tell until you touched them. They were huge at 41" x 29". The pictures were a poster of the Beatles. I didn't care about the poster. Only about the frames and the price - on clearance for $10.99. I bought 3. But they sat and sat for months. I wanted my son to find some of his black and white photography and enlarge it for the frames. It never happened however much I nagged.
Several weeks ago my son's girlfriend Liz was visiting. I mentioned to her that I had been nagging Forrest about finding some prints so I can finish my project. Liz thought it would be fun and helped him look through his pictures until he found this large piece of the Chicago skyline at sunset taken from a boat he was sailing on. Forrest used Photoshop to cut it into 3 pieces and resized them for printing. We used a gift card to Wolf Camera to have the pictures printed. They turned out spectacular. They weren't the abstract black and white pictures I thought I wanted. They were better. Here they are together so you get a better idea of the print.
I had to glue on some new hangers to hang the pictures portrait instead of landscape. I used d-rings from Home Depot and E6000 glue and some new picture wire. Here they are hanging on the wall. Again with the bad iPhone pictures until I can get a new camera.
The art on the walls is my sons. They are several paintings from when he was in summer art school at the Art Institute of Chicago. They were colorful and made by my son so I loved them. I've been ready for a change for awhile but didn't know what to put in their place. I wanted something bigger. The prints are hung too high in relationship to the couch. I have plaster walls and didn't want to move and patch and paint for new screws on the walls. And it had to be pretty inexpensive.
Back in December I found a couple pictures on clearance at Bed Bath and Beyond. I don't even have a picture of them. The frames were black and nice and thick. They were plastic but you couldn't tell until you touched them. They were huge at 41" x 29". The pictures were a poster of the Beatles. I didn't care about the poster. Only about the frames and the price - on clearance for $10.99. I bought 3. But they sat and sat for months. I wanted my son to find some of his black and white photography and enlarge it for the frames. It never happened however much I nagged.
Several weeks ago my son's girlfriend Liz was visiting. I mentioned to her that I had been nagging Forrest about finding some prints so I can finish my project. Liz thought it would be fun and helped him look through his pictures until he found this large piece of the Chicago skyline at sunset taken from a boat he was sailing on. Forrest used Photoshop to cut it into 3 pieces and resized them for printing. We used a gift card to Wolf Camera to have the pictures printed. They turned out spectacular. They weren't the abstract black and white pictures I thought I wanted. They were better. Here they are together so you get a better idea of the print.
I had to glue on some new hangers to hang the pictures portrait instead of landscape. I used d-rings from Home Depot and E6000 glue and some new picture wire. Here they are hanging on the wall. Again with the bad iPhone pictures until I can get a new camera.
You might also notice that I put the black slipcover back on the couch instead of the brown one. Here is a picture straight on but with worse night lighting and shadows. I really need a new camera instead of using my son's iPhone. I finally have something the correct scale for the space. Bad pictures notwithstanding, I'm very happy with the way the prints turned out. I spent $33 + tax for the frames, the prints were free with a gift card but would have cost $20 each without, we had 3 sheets of white paper from the art supply store and used some double sided tape to hold the photos in place. I used some d-rings, E6000 glue and picture wire to hang them. So for under $50 I got the large update I had been wanting for several months.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Shelves in the bedroom
Today we hung some shelves in my son's room. I also touched up the paint around the ceiling. When I painted last year I must have been drunk! The lines were so crooked. A little ceiling paint and a steady hand made a world of differences today. My camera is still dead so I only have iPhone pictures to show, which were taken at night so the light is bad. I just knew if I waited for better pictures that I would get busy with something else and actually never get around to positing something.
In the space between the desk and the lower shelf I want to hang either a pin board or a piece of art. It definitely needs something there. I had fun pulling stuff from a box of misc. decorating items to place on the shelves. Its nice to have things out and my books off the floor of my bedroom. The empty frame hanging on the wall is just temporary. It already fell down with the command hooks holding it. I like how it fills the space so I'll hammer in a nail to be more permanent. Speaking of hanging. Oh boy were the shelves hard to hang. I have plaster walls. It took FOREVER to drill thru them to use the super duty screws to hang them.
I'm happy to have this project done except for a few tweaks to the decorative items.
In the space between the desk and the lower shelf I want to hang either a pin board or a piece of art. It definitely needs something there. I had fun pulling stuff from a box of misc. decorating items to place on the shelves. Its nice to have things out and my books off the floor of my bedroom. The empty frame hanging on the wall is just temporary. It already fell down with the command hooks holding it. I like how it fills the space so I'll hammer in a nail to be more permanent. Speaking of hanging. Oh boy were the shelves hard to hang. I have plaster walls. It took FOREVER to drill thru them to use the super duty screws to hang them.
I'm happy to have this project done except for a few tweaks to the decorative items.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Painting the beam
So today I took care of a little painting chore that's been nagging at me since December. Yes 8 months. I painted over an accent wall in the living room in December, returning it to the same color as the other 3 walls. I guess I'm not an accent wall kind of girl. Painting the wall also entailed painting the bottom of a beam separating my living room and dining room to the wall color. I could have painted it the white ceiling color but didn't want to mess with getting more paint out. What I didn't realize at the time is that the beam continues into the hallway and also needed the bottom painted the wall color. In the hallway the bottom is white.
Now I must explain that the distance from the beam in the living room to the beam in the hallway is about 2-3 feet, so its pretty noticeable that it's different. Today I painted the bottom of the beam in the hallway. It was about 2 feet long by about a foot wide. And I managed to drip turquoise paint (2 drops!) onto my beige carpeting even though I put down a drop cloth. I'm talented that way. Oh and by the way, if you drip paint on the carpet, blot don't rub. Ask me how I know. So now I have a turquoise smear on my carpeting instead of a drop. I'm currently waiting for the paint to dry to see if it requires a second coat.
Pictures? You want pictures? It's really boring and dark in the hallway. And really it's just the bottom of the beam. And I'm being lazy. And my camera is somehow broken and eats batteries in about 15 minutes. So no pictures for you. The other annoying part of this project or rather the 8 months that this project wasn't done is that my tub full of painting supplies and the gallon of turquoise paint sat out all this time. I didn't want to take it down the 3.5 flights of stairs into the basement when I knew I was going to use it again. For awhile it was in the corner of my dining room. Then I got tired of looking at it all the time. So I moved it into my son's room while he was away at college. Then he came home in June and it got moved into my bedroom. Really, it would have been easier to take the 15 minutes and get the job done. But no.
So what prompted this little chore getting done? I'm moving up some chest of drawers that I purchased in December that I had stored in the basement into my bedroom (that I'm currently, slowly redoing). The tub of painting supplies was in the way. As you can probably tell things happen slowly around my house. I'm a bit of a procrastinator.
But, the beam is painted! My black dressers are finally moving into my bedroom! I'm on a roll. (I even scrubbed the stove and the microwave this morning). Maybe I'm sick.
Before pictures of my bedroom and of the new (actually vintage but new to me) black chests in their place coming soon.
Now I must explain that the distance from the beam in the living room to the beam in the hallway is about 2-3 feet, so its pretty noticeable that it's different. Today I painted the bottom of the beam in the hallway. It was about 2 feet long by about a foot wide. And I managed to drip turquoise paint (2 drops!) onto my beige carpeting even though I put down a drop cloth. I'm talented that way. Oh and by the way, if you drip paint on the carpet, blot don't rub. Ask me how I know. So now I have a turquoise smear on my carpeting instead of a drop. I'm currently waiting for the paint to dry to see if it requires a second coat.
Pictures? You want pictures? It's really boring and dark in the hallway. And really it's just the bottom of the beam. And I'm being lazy. And my camera is somehow broken and eats batteries in about 15 minutes. So no pictures for you. The other annoying part of this project or rather the 8 months that this project wasn't done is that my tub full of painting supplies and the gallon of turquoise paint sat out all this time. I didn't want to take it down the 3.5 flights of stairs into the basement when I knew I was going to use it again. For awhile it was in the corner of my dining room. Then I got tired of looking at it all the time. So I moved it into my son's room while he was away at college. Then he came home in June and it got moved into my bedroom. Really, it would have been easier to take the 15 minutes and get the job done. But no.
So what prompted this little chore getting done? I'm moving up some chest of drawers that I purchased in December that I had stored in the basement into my bedroom (that I'm currently, slowly redoing). The tub of painting supplies was in the way. As you can probably tell things happen slowly around my house. I'm a bit of a procrastinator.
But, the beam is painted! My black dressers are finally moving into my bedroom! I'm on a roll. (I even scrubbed the stove and the microwave this morning). Maybe I'm sick.
Before pictures of my bedroom and of the new (actually vintage but new to me) black chests in their place coming soon.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Importing Blog Posts
I continue to procrastinate. I am now playing around with importing blog posts from my various blogs from past years into Easily Distracted by Shiny Things. So far so good. If you see some weird things hang tight. I have to reformat pictures as I import them.
Procrastination
Ever have those days where you have a ton of stuff to get done, but no real motivation go move your butt from the couch? Today was one of those days. Instead o f dishes, laundry, housework, bills, plants and pets to take care of, etc. I decided to clean up my bookmarks. Remember before Pinterest when you would bookmark cool ideas? I finally went though and opened each bookmark, pinned the neat-o idea I had been saving for years and then deleted the bookmark. Repeat about 150 times. Well that was productive, not. I then proceeded to update the look of my blog, repeat about 50 times until I found something that I liked for today. My son yells at me (not really) about not posting to my blog but then spending hours tweaking how it looks. He is right of course. I hardly write anymore. And blog posts are few and far between. He had an great suggestion of importing posts from various previous blogs into this one so everything is in one spot. How awesome is that idea?! I don't know if I can do it, but it will be fun to try. As for the writing more suggestion .... crickets....its a good idea of course. But will I do it? We shall have to wait to find out. Inspiration seems to be lacking. I've got updates to the house to document but my camera is eating batteries faster than I can take pictures so that will have to wait.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Hollywood Regency Bedroom
I love Hollywood Regency style with its eclectic mix of glamor,
shiny surfaces, Asian influences and a touch of mid century modern. At
least 1960's Hollywood Regency has a touch of mid century modern. This
is a mood board for my bedroom.I hope to get pretty close to how this looks. I already have the chair, the peacocks on the wall, the lampshades, both the nightstand chests and another chest I'm thinking of painting white. My budget for a complete transformation is $500 which includes paint, bedding, new lights, artwork, drapes, accessories and an upholstered headboard. Wish me luck! Of course I'll post before pictures when I'm ready to get started and update pictures throughout the process.
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