More done to-dos

I'm back from our trip to France! Sorry for the unannounced absence and total lack of blogging. I had planned to schedule posts in advance and things got too crazy before getting out of town to make that happen. I thought about taking my laptop and trying to blog from there but I took the digitally disconnected route instead and left that and my phone in Big D. Anyhow, we had such a great time, but I'm happy to be back in the USA :) A billion photos were taken, so once I sort through those I'll do a few posts on the trip. Until then...here is a post I drafted for last week:

Changing the overhead lighting in pretty much every room of the house has been loitering on my to-do list since we moved in. Little by little, I'm getting it done and happily, the end is in sight. The guest bedrooms all had dim, bland flushmounts, so each room needed a lighting facelift. I'm happy to report that now I've got two down and only one to go!

When something doesn't work in one room, it's often worth trying it in another. Let's face it - money doesn't grow on trees so sometimes you have to channel your inner Tim Gunn and just make it work. I like to apply this concept to chandeliers. The white chandelier currently in the breakfast room came from the dining room. So, the black chandelier that was originally in the breakfast room got moved to the back guest bedroom...as you can see in the photo above. I'm feeling good about it in here. The rug, on the other hand, is a perfect example of when the "make it work" mantra just fizzles. It was great in our old house but just doesn't fit anywhere in the new one. It might end up on Ebay pretty soon.

Another item off of the to-do list is a roman shade project. Since a grayish brown finish was ideal, I ordered these natural bamboo shades and decided to stain them myself so I could get the color right. Plus, custom shades are pricey (these were only about $20 a piece) and I don't want to invest in those at this point in case we decide to upgrade our windows.

Now that I've found that my experiment worked pretty well, a few other windows around the house will probably be getting these too!

Finally, I found a new home for the displaced artwork...homeless due to the musical artwork game referenced in the last post.