Tidbits

 

I'll be honest.  The past few days have been torture.  I'm sick, yes, again.  I've got my yearly "it's fall" cold.  I went to work on Thursday feeling perfectly fine, no hints or clues that I was going to get sick.  By the time I taught a 2nd grade lesson, around 1:45, I was battling a sever sore throat.  By that evening, my nose had turned into a faucet and my body ached like hell.  All in a matter of 12 hours?  Usually I get sick nice and slow, and it progresses slow, so I guess this wam, bam, thank you ma'am cold is a blessing in disguise.  Today, when I started coughing, I knew it was time for the doc.

My whole weekend (plus my work day Friday) was stolen by this wretched infection.  I didn't get anything done, besides rest.  I hate resting.  I hate sitting around doing nothing!

So, let me catch you up on what I did do...last weekend;)  I wanted to wait to do updates until my blog was redesigned but it's taking longer than expected and I don't want to be away that long!  We've done a few little updates around here, mostly on our main floor.  We still have a long way to go until I call this place "done" but we are slowly chipping away!

Our door handles in the house are that ugly brass...gross.  I thought about replacing all of them but then I figured, why buy something that can be so easily re-made?  All I needed was something to sand them with, a primer, and a nice color to replace the brassiness!  I chose good ol ORB because I love how it looks with our gray.

I sanded them lightly with one of those steel wool jiggy ma-bobs, then cleaned them in warm, soapy water.  I sprayed them lightly with a white primer, and then sprayed them with this ORB from Home Depot.

What a wonderful difference it makes.  I've only done 4 of our doors on the main floor.  I have to do all of the upstairs handles, and our two main doors.  I have to do the main door handles on a day I have off, and finish them in one day, obviously, because I'll need to be able to lock our house back up at night;)  Here are the ones I've done, all pretty!

Lovely!

The doors and trim have since been painted too.  I love the crisp white with the ORB and lovely gray!

Then, I had to repaint my candle stick set that I re-made a year ago.  Too much gray!!  They needed a pop of color, so I chose a moody navy blue and a happy limey green - both colors go awesome with the gray walls...

Isn't spray paint the best?  Such a quick, sweet update!

They used to be a silvery gray, which worked better with our old colors and decor, but now they pop out and give a cheery HELLO!  I need to put some candles in them.  I'm in love with these colors!  Again with these I sanded them a little and wiped them off, and then sprayed thin, even coats...

The last little update are the new shelves from IKEA.  These are a work in progress.  I have books and other fun things to decorate these with, right now they look a little empty.  I am a huge fan of the whole new way to display pictures...which  is not hanging them on the walls but propping them up on shelves in haphazard ways.  I'm hoping it'll add to the layering look I am trying to accomplish in the house.  So while they are cute, they are going to be cuter in weeks to come!

They were super easy to hang.  I love the floating shelf look.  The pictures are going to be swapped out for frames that prop against the wall...

Of course, Frodo needs to photo-bomb as usual...

Aren't the colors delightful together?  I bought white shelves to off set all the dark furniture in this room.  I've got plans to paint, refinish and update every single piece of wood furniture in this space...I can't stand that it all matches!!  Oh and we need a big rug in here too - a big big one!  And curtains...but all in good time, all in good time.  It's really coming together nicely though, isn't it?