Once Upon A Time...

...the door to this room was always shut. 

Now don't be fooled by this picture...what USED to be behind this door was far far worse. 
   
    Back in the day, before I made my cleaning debut moved in, this door was always closed.  In fact, frequent visitors of the townhouse (mini recap: the house we live in now used to be Brian's college house that him and his friends totally trashed) didn't even realize there was a whole other room leading off of the main living room.  Actually, there are 2 rooms, this room and a lil study to the right. 

   This room used to be, what I called "The furniture and stereo graveyard".  The ONLY things that occupied this room were broken pieces of furniture, tons of really really old stereo systems and speakers, a black leather couch that was as stiff as a board, and a Bob Marley tapestry hanging from the ceiling.  The couch was given to my brother along with the tapestry. 

No kidding, these guys would bring so much furniture into this house, then in a drunken late night state, furniture would get broken and they'd just put store it in this room for safe keeping.  I took it upon myself one Sunday afternoon to clean the room out.  I carried  a HUGE coffee table - that had one leg dangling off of it with sharp splinter pieces jabbing into my skin-   all the way to the dumpster behind our house.  I even found a completely rotten orange lying in some super smelly metal canister.  Yuck. 

Though I don't have any pics of the "graveyard" room, I do have a pic of this air vent just to show you how neglected this room once was:

Look, even the dust has dreadlocks! Nasty!!!

Here's another pic of the room in it's early days (after I moved in).  Oh look, you can see a stereo system sitting on the coffee table. 

And now, this is my favorite room in the whole house. 

 The rug was my great grandmothers, I'm so happy to have something of hers.  Brian and I rented a big ol' truck and drove all the way to Charlotte, North Carolina to pick it up. 

The furniture came from my dad when he moved.  My uncle had bought it for my mom and the minute my dad told me he was moving, I INSISTED that this furniture belonged to me. 

This antique pie chest is my absolute FAVORITE piece of furniture.  My mom got it prob 30 years ago from a thrift shop in the country.  It used to be in my room when I was way younger then it was used in our computer room. 

This lamp MAGICALLY appeared in our house one day.  That seems to happen a lot in our home...things appear magically and it takes Brian a few weeks to notice it's even in the house.   Funny how that happens.  I have nothing to do with it....I'm completely innocent. Mmmm Hmmm.

I was sooo mad cause I went back to Homegoods to get the other matching lamp...uhhhh....I mean....I waited for the other lamp to magically appear as well, but I was told it wasn't going to happen...because Homegoods sold out of them.  Rats. 

This used to be my mom's reading chair and her favorite place to work.  It's now my favorite reading nook and chair to cuddle up in.  I think one day I will get it recovered...a white chair just isn't very practical for someone who wants 3 kids, a dog and 2 cats... the one dog plan is tentative.  It could move up to 2. 

My silver tea set my grandmother and I used to use for our tea parties =)  And the cord cover my friend MC made for me.  

Well that's my FAVORITE room in my home.  Hope you enjoyed the tour.
Joy D. 

I Know Your Lookin!! (And a cute project to see)

Alright peeps, I'm no mathematician here but some numbers just aren't adding up.  My blog has had 4,351 views (give or take a couple hundred that some of those views are my own) and I have 43 followers (and I love all 43 of you btw)... so what's the dealio???

Perhaps this is your 2nd, 3rd, or 4th time visiting my blog - if you like my blog - would you be a doll and click "Follow" in the right column, please???  Besides, the more followers I have, the easier it is for me to convince Brian I HAVE to get my projects done - just joking...

Well kinda

OK, actually I'm not jokin.  

And believe me, I have A TON of ideas that I can't wait to start share.  Plus if I get more followers, I may have to break down and get a fancier lookin scroll at the top. 

Have I lost you yet?? I promise, there's a cute project coming up.  

Every good DIYer/crafter needs a good work area.  I wrote this post back on April 30, 2009, about how I had been planning to turn my 4th bedroom into a craft room.  Eight months later, I've finally started working on my craft room. Well... Better late than never!

Now don't judge me PLEASE, but here are some pics of the room BEFORE - when it was more of a ...uh...place to put our crap room??

 

Needless to say, the door to this bedroom stayed SHUT majority of the time.

This is the room a couple of weeks ago.  It's not a total Betty but a vast improvement (my fav quote from Clueless btw) It started with the dresser...

Then the dresser reminded me that I had some light green window panels I had bought YEARS ago.  They WERE in the yard sale pile, sooooo glad I pulled them out!

Then I needed a work table and I remembered I had this table

This was a retro table that was imposed given to us from my dad during his big move (along with the other junk you see around it).  I tried to sell the table on Craigslist once.  I got a couple of hits for it but no serious inquiries.

Still reading?? I promise, you are really really close to getting to the cute project.  Hang on! 

I found a cute green tablecloth from Homegoods for $6.99 and decided the table would be given a second shot in life.

And this is ONLY the beginning.  I've painted the room a champagne pink.  You'll see it when I post pics of the finished project.

OK, here is the cute project, thanks for reading my babble this far! 

Today, with the help of Brian, WE made something to hold wrapping paper.  I'd been stalking checking out other people's ideas for a "wrapping paper station".  The first idea I had, Brian told me it would put too many holes in the wall.  Psh. Whatevs.  He cares about that stuff, definitely not me!  

So he came up with a better solution.

We had some extra wood left over from where we had a new back door installed.

Hubby cut 2 even pieces for me

We bought 4 wooden rods from Home Depot ($.89 each)

I painted the 2 wooden strips Brian cut for me

Then Brian EVENLY put screw-in hooks (5 each) on both sides.  These hooks are one of my favorite things to have around, I use them all the time.

Then he screwed  both boards EVENLY onto the wall.  The word EVEN is the key in this project.
Here it is...I am super giggily over how C-U-T-E this turned out.

EEEK!!! I think it turned out great!  Now a pic a lil farther behind (and a better view of my cleaned up for this pic work table)

We bought 4 rods, and luckily I just so happend to have an extra lying around.  And I can change the wrapping paper out super easily. 

Well, I'm super pumped about this.  And we only put 2 holes in the wall.  Yay.

Step 1 of the craft room complete.  Well actually cleaning it was step 1, then painting was step 2.  So maybe this is step 3?? Either way, stay tuned for the rest of the completion of my craft room.

BTW ("By The Way" if anyone is as behind in the times as I am) if you ever have a child selling anything for his/her school, club, sports team, etc... PLEASE come to my door.  I vowed NEVER to say no to ANY kid that is selling something for a fundraiser.  All 5 wrapping papers above have been purchased from a school kid, I'm a pretty good customer if I do say so myself ;) 

I hope everyone has a great week!
Joy D.

Linking up to:

Be Our Guest!!

Be Our Guest, Be Our Guest , Put Our Service to the Test

Need a place to relax?? Then come to our house and be our guest!!!

At casa Dineen, we don't want you to lift a finger - not even a foot.

That's why we've put the guest toilet in the guest bedroom, why spend all that energy walking to the bathroom??

Just jokin! I'd have a panic attack if you really wanted to "be our guest" right now.  As you can see - I have stuff all over the guest bed, the room needs to be painted, oh, and there's a toilet in the room. 

Brian started ripping up the old floor in "my" bathroom about 2 weeks ago

Two weeks later, the toilet is still in the guest bedroom.  During this re-tiling project, we've decided to just purchase a new toilet all together, so now it's just pure laziness from BOTH of our parts why the toilet is STILL in the house.  And I hate to admit it, but it's been ME who has been really, really lazy this week.

I will give Brian some snaps, he's saving us a TON of ching-ching tiling the bathroom floor himself.  And he's almost done putting the new floor down.

I'll have to have him explain why he has to put this plastic floor down on top of the wood floor thats already there.  There's a sheet of the new tile on the countertop if you want a visual affect of what it will look like after. 

I can't WAIT to show you the finished project, becuase I, myself, can't wait to see it done!!! I have all kinds of cute new bathroom canisters and towels I'm itching to display.  There's that itch again...

Oh, and if you DID want to be a guest in our house...which I hope you would...I have to warn you, you have to share a bed with him:

And he is a pillow hogger. 
Happy Friday!
Joy D.

I've Got a BAD Craving...

Craving, Urge, Desire, Itch...call it what you'd like....BUT I GOT IT BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1.  I'm trying full force NOT to purchase a New Lilly dress.  I invest 0 dollars in winter attire and save all my peanuts for DRESSES, DRESSES, AND MORE DRESSES. 

Brian does not understand this ITCH, CRAVING I get...especially since I pick the most expensive dresses.  Oops.  So I'm trying REALLY HARD to NOT get a new Lilly dress right now...but I don't know how much longer I can go!!!!!

Here are a few I'm head over heels for

See my problem??? They are so stinkin AMAZING!!!!

2.  I've got an itch to paint my living room

I've tried really hard to have more of a modern taste...but traditional and plain jane just run deep in my blood.  My dining room and formal living room are more traditional and I'm having a hard time jumping from one exterme to another. 

3.  I got puppy fever...bad. 
These are the breeds I want (in no specific order)

King Charles

Shih Tzu

Golden Doodle

4.  I'm dyin to use my china.  But I have super bad anxiety over my house - meaning - if the house isn't just the way I want it, I don't have ANYONE over.  Prob where Brian and I differ the most.  If there are dirty dishes in the sink, dust bunnies on the stairs, or misplaced items around the house, I just can't do it.  And until I finish the rest of my projects and winter cleaning (fingers crossed this weekend will be super productive), I'll wait to use the china and have ya over for a visit. 

Okay, thats it for now.  Stay warm! 

Does it POP now??

I received a ton of feedback over my bench I made. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.  THANK YOU. 

In case your just tuning in, here it is again:

I said in the post, and I quote:

"I need a smaller, more colorful pillow to put in front of the black pillows.  Something that makes it POP".

 Well...

I know a lot of people were expecting a green pillow but I chose red to go with this picture:

 So does it make it POP now??

This was the front hall before:

I think the grey makes it feel much warmer. 

So where did I get the pillow???

Well first, I received a "happy" in the mail from a dear friend. 

I'm obsessed.  I think it is a perfect decorative pillow and Brian thinks it is a perfect pillow to give his head and extra umph when watching tv.  I liked the size so much so I thought it would be perfect for the bench. 

For $15, I got the pillow, monogram AND shipping from Ballard Designs.   SOLD!!!!

Such a perfect "happy" to get in the mail!!

I've been searching for the perfect fabric to go with this color for curtains for our bedroom (the color of my bedroom is Valspar's "Brisk Olive".  I could paint every room in the house this color.  Brian thinks it's hideous and that we will have to paint over it if we want to sell the house).

Look at the fabric I got for curtains from Hancocks

LOVE.LOVE.LOVE.LOVE.LOVE.LOVE.LOVE.  Brian thinks the only reason I got it is because it reminds me of my FAVORITE Lilly P dress; we call it "The Monkey Dress"

(There's a monkey right in the middle of the dress that you can't really see very well). 

Not sure what kind of curtains I am going to do yet, but I'll certainly share as soon as I am done =) 

Weekend Recap

Wow - I had a VERY, very busy weekend.  So busy that I didn't have a chance to get one project finished -but it's OK, I needed the weekend off.

Brian had sent me an email on Friday asking if I wanted to have a date night - I had been a lil stressed this past week with cleaning, organizing, the usual things that I go crazy over.

-First up on the weekend agenda:  I was wined and dined at Dudley's.  

We even received a dessert "on the house" - we weren't quite sure why, but I'm pretty sure one of the employees had something to do with it.  He was someone I had gone to elementary and high school with who was aware of our recent nuptials and he came to the table to congratulate us.  Thanks Ryan!!

-Then we went to see "The Green Hornet" 

I have mixed reviews about the movie.  I really can't decide if I liked it or not, I think the only thing holding me back from NOT liking it, is that I'm a pretty big fan of Seth Rogen.  

-Saturday, I attended the baby shower of an old friend.  Alison and John will be welcoming their first baby this April.  It's so much fun to see people you've grown up with become grown ups themselves.  I can't wait to meet Woods Douglas Randolph!!  

I WISH I could claim credit for this adorable basket - it's now in my idea folder. 

 One of my New Years resolutions was to take the time and WRAP presents, not just stuffing them in a bag with some tissue.  I have my friend, MC, who has helped inspire this.  

I got Alison a bathtub - but there was NO WAY I could wrap this!! So instead,  I tried to jazz up the appearance of the tub and recreate a bath scene.  

I hope I made ya proud MC!

I LOOOOOVVVVVEEEE all details involved with showers and parties, here are a few pics for ya. 

I'm kind of obsessed...ok I kinda LOOOOOVVVVEEEEE Julep Cups. 

My friend Melissa makes the most beautiful flower arrangements!!

And Paul Revere bowls, I loooovvveee them.  I will have a separate post dedicated to Julep Cups and Paul Revere bowls.  They were the only things I requested from my florist for table arrangements at the wedding.  They are also 2 of my favorite things to decorate with.  

-Then we went to a friends house for a poker tournament.  

 I have and still have no idea how the heck to play this game.  I went to the party only hoping to be Brian's arm candy and for some socializing, but somehow I got talked into playing.  I was told I'd pick it up really fast - I definitely didn't pick it up AT ALL.  I'm much better with card games like speed, go fish, spades, etc... but I am going to make an attempt to learn the game of poker so that I can bring a lil more competition to the table next year. 

-Sunday, we had a VERY important event to attend in Louisville.  I have been looking forward to this for weeks now!! 

A pic from our wedding

This handsome stud turned one - our nephew - Paul Dineen Ford.  Happy Birthday Paul!!!

I think he liked it

I sat at the kid table...just jokin!! They didn't want me to sit with them =(

I got some REALLY good advice for a present idea.  

I think he liked it, THANKS MARKEY!!! 

Oh yeah, he DEF liked our present!!

And last but not least on my weekend recap, I got 3 new followers =)  I also got a lot of compliments from people about my blog. 

A new mommy told me she reads my blog at 3 in the mornin while she is pumpin milk.  

I even found out that I have a male viewer who likes my blog, thanks Robert =)  

Every time I get a new follower or a new comment, it motivates me to keep blogging.  SO THANK YOU EVERYONE SOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!! So, uh if your not following yet....will you follow me?? Pretty please?? With meatballs on top??