Progress report.

My house is a mess.

And I'm not talking about a "stuff strewn about" kind of mess (please never open my bedroom door). We are fairly tidy and try really hard to stay on top of the day-to-day clutter because when four people and a dog share 1200 square feet and one bathroom, it gets ugly pretty quickly. Think nightmarish stacks of school papers and overflowing laundry baskets and piles of playground pebbles and lots and lots of dog hair.

Oh, the dog hair. Yeah, we have to stay on top of that. Both for physical and mental health reasons. But, I digress.

The mess to which I'm currently referring is more of a "what in heaven's name is happening in here?" kind of mess.

I'll tell you what's happening in here ("here" being my first floor): I've lost my everloving mind.

Remember that challenge I gave myself earlier this year? The one about injecting color into my drab, tan house through thrift store shopping and DIY projects?

Idiotic. Turns out I love tan. Tan's my favorite. You know why? Because loving tan means I DON'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING ELSE.

Seriously, who has time for this? When am I supposed to thrift and craft and paint and sew? I currently have about 52 minutes between Calvin actually going to sleep (vs. when we put him to bed an hour and eight minutes earlier) and me actually going to sleep. And call me crazy, but I prefer to use those 52 minutes to shovel ice cream in my mouth, flip through my secondhand copies of People, and half-watch The Bridge.

Occasionally, though, I find a burst of energy and wholly devote myself to this project. This typically occurs on nights when Nate isn't home. Then he comes home, looks from me to the mess I've made, raises an eyebrow, and says "whatcha doin'?"

Nate's "whatcha doin'?" is the equivalent of "what in heaven's name is happening in here?"

A fair question, and one I ask myself pretty much every time I walk in the front door these days.

On one such evening, I took down everything on my living and dining room walls. That was in June. Guess what's hanging on my walls now? Nails.

I also purchased some fabric and folded it around a curtain rod just to get a feel for how it would look in my entryway window. Three weeks ago. It's still there. And it must look okay because last weekend my mother-in-law said "oh, you got your curtain done!" Um, no. I got my fabric shoved up in that window. But if no one can tell the difference between something I've sewn and something I shoved, why bother sewing it?

And let's not get started on the insane mix of styles represented in my house right now. Modern, vintage, and traditional do not work as well together in one room (or one house) as you might think. Every time I change one thing, I realize I need to change ten more for it to work.

Thus the mess.

In all seriousness, redecorating is hard work. Really hard. When your goal is to make your house more colorful and family-friendly and everything you own is dark wood and breakable and you don't have money to buy all new stuff, well...it takes some doing.

I'm totally frustrated, but I know this has been good for me. It's helping me realize that matching does not always equal style, that nothing bad is going to happen if I take some chances and come up with crazy combinations that appeal to me and no one else, and that the beauty of our home is the result of how we live in it — not how we decorate it.

Of course we all know I will be freaking out trying to make sense of this disaster before my sister-in-law's baby shower next month.

Or maybe not. Maybe I'll just do what I did before Audra's party and take everything down. I'm halfway there already.

De-tanning.

Like my new wreath?

I can't tell you how ridiculous this looks on my front door when we have two feet of snow on the ground.

I can, however, tell you that I don't give a hoot. I love ridiculous. Ridiculous is my favorite!

I threw this together the other night (Mod Podge is my new BFF) because I just can't stand this blah wintery blahness for one more second. I love the snow, but I am tired of the gray and dreary backdrop. Gray trees, dirty snow, concrete. Blah! So my gray and dreary front entrance complete with dead Christmas garland now boasts this wildly inappropriate-for-the-weather wreath. 

I actually laughed when I saw it from the street for the first time. It's pretty bright, even from a distance. But bright is good! I need bright right now! And my house really needs bright right now. Which leads me to my poorly named year-long home futzing initiative:

PROJECT COLOR.

(Sorry, couldn't help myself.)

So, here's the deal. My house is boring me to tears. The only room we've painted since we moved in is Calvin's. The house was freshly painted in a neutral palette when we bought it, and it worked with our existing furniture so we went with it. And it's not bad, by any means. I think most people would say we have a nice house painted in a nice color palette.

It's just so...tan.

While I love tan as a skin tone and very much wish I could achieve it for myself, I do not love it as a house tone. It's a lovely color, it's just not me. It may have been me six years ago, when I was taking my newly married adult homeowner status very seriously and shopping exclusively at Pottery Barn (before everything there had a lobster or shell on it), but since then my style has evolved and our family has grown. What worked for Nate and Abby in 2007 no longer works for Nate and Abby and Calvin and Audra and Matilda in 2013. Adult dinners have since given way to kid playdates, and what we need and want now is a bright, fun, comfortable space for our family and friends. A home where our kids can play and create and be inspired. A home where I don't feel like I have to tuck all the kid stuff out of sight because it doesn't "go."

There are a few rooms in our house that already meet this criteria: the kitchen, Calvin's room, Audra's room. Our bedroom will be painted and redecorated this spring, but I consider that a separate effort. The bathroom is fine — again, not what I'd choose but also not at the top of my priority list. I might make some minor updates to that later in the year.

The real focus of this effort will be our primary living space: the entryway, living room, and dining room. These areas need to be brighter, lighter (in both color and personality), and more functional for a busy family of four. We have a very small house, so every part of it really needs to be livable and usable.

I've already put some parameters on this initiative, since I would most assuredly go crazy and spend all of our money without them.

Wall colors stay. I hate painting, and this would be a major undertaking (difficult with small children). So instead of ridding our home of tan, I will just attempt to distract from it.

Furniture stays. All of our living and dining room furniture is high quality and in good condition. While it may not be what I'd purchase today, it would be ridiculous to replace it and I want to work with what I have. I am open to swapping out/modifying some of our less expensive pieces, though.

Rugs stay. Both of mine are from Pottery Barn and relatively new so I can't justify the expense of replacing them. I wish they were brighter, but at least the living room rug has some color to it and the dining room rug is fairly neutral.

Plate wall stays. I still love it and it took me forever. I do anticipate some plate updates, however.

No big purchases. I don't want to break the bank on this, so Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel and the like will be off-limits.

My goal is to inject color and life into these three rooms relying solely on discount/thrift store finds and DIY projects. I'm giving myself a year to accomplish this, because it will take time and I want to do it right. And I'm putting it on the blog because I want the accountability of having to show you what I've done at the end of the year.

I'm not a Pinterest queen or inspired decorator, so I really have no idea how this will go. Change and risk-taking are both really hard for me! But I'm excited to give myself a project, challenge myself creatively, and hopefully end up with a home that better reflects our family, our lifestyle, and our values.

And I promise to show you everything, even the DIY disasters. I'm sure there will be plenty of those.

16 months.

October 2011 is when Calvin transitioned to his big boy bed. I was seven months pregnant.

February 2013 is when I finished his big boy room. Audra will be 14 months old tomorrow.

I think the word you're looking for is efficient.

(Or lazy.)

Anyway, Calvin's room is finally mostly done. I say "mostly" because I am a futzer and nothing is ever really done at our house (more to come on that soon). But it's to a point where I have declared it both cute and good enough for a three-year-old, so I may as well show it to you.

The view from the door. The race track is a decal from The Land of Nod. The picture is from Target and I don't love it and it's not big enough for that space (futzer!) but it does the job. 

This is actually my childhood bed frame. It's iron, which is pretty much ideal for toddler boys (and preteen girls who like to put stickers on their headboard). Nate spray painted it red. The quilt is from The Land of Nod, and I got into a pretty decent bidding war over that thing on Ebay. I emerged victorious, and paid half off retail for it. Score! Dinosaur sheets are from Target.

Opposite the bed is my good enough wall. (Okay, here's what really bothers me: I want to put that racetrack decal around the entire room but it's like $40 a set and I need three and I just can't justify that cost for a toddler bedroom. I'd like to say I will add to it over time but since it's already been up for a year and I haven't added to it, that seems unlikely. Instead, it will just annoy me until we redecorate.) The metal signs are from The Land of Nod. The enormous navy polka dot piggy bank is from HomeGoods. Lamp is from Target. Dresser is from Ikea (notice there is no closet in this tiny room. Luckily his clothes are still pretty small and he's a boy. This would not work for Audra.)

To the left of his dresser is a little wooden hook I found at Goodwill for $1.50 and painted red. I love having his dress-up clothes accessible and not tucked away in some bin. (Mostly because his room is tiny and there is a lot of other stuff to tuck into bins.)

His preschool teacher traced him last fall, then sent home this ginormous piece of paper. I felt bad throwing it (him?) out, so I hung it on the back of the door. It's kind of creepy. Especially at night.

The heart of his room: books and toys. And a clock he can't read.

We turned an Ikea Expedit shelf on its side. His bigger toys are housed on top (perfect height for play), his books are on the middle shelves, and his smaller toys are in fabric bins below. Trains are in clear storage containers under the bed.

His reading nook. Mostly I sit in that chair and nag him to get dressed, or he sits in that chair and pouts during time out, but sometimes we actually sit in that chair to cuddle and read (intended use). The blanket on the chair was mine as a baby, and is made out of the cutest vintage (well, now it's vintage because I'm old) alphabet fabric. The chair and curtains are from Ikea.

I made the bunting out of ricrac and felt. Hand sewing is my favorite! (No. It's not.) The bulletin board is from Target and showcases pictures, notes, and his favorite craft projects from school.

The collage features some of my favorite Calvin works of art in super inexpensive Ikea frames. The C is a three dimensional cardboard letter from JoAnn — I painted the edges red and Mod Podged striped fabric to the front. The Story People print I got when I was pregnant with him still hangs in the corner.

His room is super tiny and it took me 16 months to finish it. I am really the worst at stuff like this. But I think I achieved what I set out to accomplish — a happy, inspiring, creative space where my Bub can relax and play and I can get annoyed about small pictures and insufficient wall decals.

Short but sweet.

During our weekend jaunt to Detroit (can you call a 700 mile drive a jaunt? I doubt it.), we were fortunate enough to stay with my parents one night on either end of our trip. It was a poor replacement for the long weekend we'd planned to spend there in July (unfortunately that weekend was spent saying goodbye to Grandma Adele), but it was still so good to be home.

Calvin found a stick...and a playmate.

Audra got some snuggles from Auntie Jill, who celebrated the completion of her masters degree that weekend (hooray for my studious little sis...she is so much more motivated than I am)!

G-Pop took Calvin fishing for the first time, at the little lake in their subdivision. He loved it!

And both kids got some love (and plenty of treats) from their Nana. 

 

It wasn't the long weekend we had planned, but even short is sweet when you're with people you love.

Now accepting applications.

Moms. Just because it's summer doesn't mean your children shouldn't be held to the highest educational standards!

At the Breyer Home For Our Two Children And Their Parents, kids are exposed to a rigorous academic curriculum and expected to develop anywhere from 10-15 new skills during the summer months. These skills include but are not limited to:

Table manners.

Literary appreciation. 

Lawn care.

Personal grooming.

Penmanship.

Photography.

The creative arts.

Physical fitness.

Basic mobility.

Risk-taking.

And accessorization.

 

Sure, this much learning in one summer may seem overzealous or even overbearing to some. But to those who doubt my methods I say:

Can you think of a better way to cram an entire summer's worth of random photos of me not teaching my kids anything into a single post? Because clearly I cannot.