The Price I Paid For Beauty

We’ve lived in our new house a little more than seven months now.

This house feels so comfortable, so right, so peaceful.

But “I” had still not moved in;  much of my wardrobe still in boxes, the artwork I care about – also in boxes,  the organization of “MY” spaces non-existent.

I accidentally joined Pinterest.  And even though I have spent less than five minute on it, I was feeling the pressure.

I visited Captain Murdock’s house – PRESSURE.

I took down my Christmas decorations.

We planned to host a Super Bowl Party.

Basically, it was time to do something about the hot-mess that I call home.

And I knew exactly where to start for the most dramatic impact.

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I was sick of looking at this ottoman that is supposed to be furniture for our deck and has somehow worked its way into our living room.

I know I wore a dress made out of this same fabric to one of SAG’s fraternity formals, in 1989.

So, I decided to sew a slipcover.

I don’t really know how to sew.

But sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands.

Little Dude wanted to help with this photo shoot. Maybe he has a future on HGTV.

Isn’t that better? Plus the cats and the dog can now hide under it.

This is just gratuitous – because I think he is cute (even if I kind of hate that shirt.)

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Another problem area was our hearth.  It is asymmetrical.  I am sure it is supposed to be architectural.  Some day I will paint the brick, but I am not feeling that bold yet.

What I like best about this project, it was cheap.

I used frames that I have picked up at garage sales over the years.

Oh, and spray paint, I LOVE spray paint – and not just for the fumes.

The letters are made of cardboard, picked up at a craft-store.  There are roughly a billion choices of letters at craft-stores – I picked the cheap, easy to hang ones (that also required – SPRAY PAINTING.)

Finally, the photos are just some of my favorites from the last year, printed on my computer in black and white.

Can you spot the things I still want to change about this???  (I wish I knew how to post the answer in teeny-tiny type upside down at the bottom of the page.)

First, the vase thing (which I love but which is the wrong scale and entirely too breakable to be within my children’s reach) will be traded out for one I saw last week at Target – taller, wrapped in brown rattan.

Second, I can’t stand that the one picture has a mat and the others don’t.  Raise your hand if this also bothered you?

I need to get that photo printed larger than my printer can handle.  I am thinking Kink0s might be the answer.

But if I let these imperfections stop me, I would never do anything around my house (how my quest for perfectionism often derails all progress.)

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When you walk in our front door you are now greeted by this.

I purchased a Groupon for Picture It On Canvas.  This is the result.  They are spectacular.  I planned to email Picture It On Canvas and ask them to sponsor a give-away on my blog.  But my readership is a pathetically low number.  And I really wasn’t up for the rejection.  After all, if I want someone to tell me “No” I can just talk to my children.

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Finally, in my dining room, I hung some photographs I took years ago.

To get these evenly spaced I had to do MATH. SAG took the kids out of the room and made them leave me alone so I could concentrate. It still took three pieces of scrap-paper and four attempts to get it right.

And while you can’t see it in this photo – the previous owner left a picture hanger in the middle of the wall and painted around it.

I get it if you don’t want to fix the nail hole, but here is a suggestion, pull the picture hanger off the wall, paint and put it back up.  Thanks.

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My house is often messy and lately it has even been a bit dirty (yuck).  When I had the choice of working on these bigger house projects or actually putting things away before the party, I chose the house projects.  Fortunately, SAG cleaned.   Still, there was lots of “stuff” that had to go somewhere.

My office has never looked so….

P.S.  The photo layout weirdness on this post is brought to you courtesy of WordPress.  It pains me not to fix it.  Although it is entirely possible that I could try for hours and still not have WordPress cooperate.  So, in the spirit of NON-perfectionism, I will release this post into the blogosphere as is.