The Living Room Chronicles: Step 5: The Fireplace

Yes, this is about to happen again. I am about to show you how I spent WAY too much time with the program Paint a few years ago. Pretty much anytime you notice that I have altered a photo in anyway it is through the super high-tech program, Microsoft Paint, that comes with every computer and most people don't even open.

This time, I was doctoring up photos of living room potential. I drew out a few floor plans and then I went crazy drawing different plans for our fireplace.

You had better believe that I am not going to let all of my hard work on Paint go to waste... no no no! I am going to share it with you fine folks.

Our living room is super duper long. So, trying to figure out a furniture arrangement was not the easiest thing in the world. I came up with a few choices that would work with the new fireplace situation. Do you want to take a look at a couple of them? 

I thought so!

Things are probably only going to get more interesting from here. So, buckle up!

Who likes that squirrel hanging out in my window?

Ohhhh I learned how to take the sea legs off my drawings and straighten things up.

And get ready for these... things get a little fancy!

It isn't over yet! I took a photo I found and stuck my fireplace idea in.

Which one did we choose?

None of them! We ended up taking so long with the master bathroom remodel that we just left the fireplace alone. Also, Scott and I were both somewhat indifferent about whether or not to change out the stone wall. Some people thought it would be a crime to get rid of it. Since we weren't 100% we just left it as is.

But things have definitely changed since the last time we took a look at this green machine. It turned cream! It has officially been de-funkyed. No more lovely Asparagus Green by Behr.

Now, it is "cut a chunk out from behind the refrigerator and have Home Depot paint match that color because I ran out of paint and like a dummy I didn't keep the paint can." Have you ever head of that color? It is a lovely one.

The blue stuff around the fireplace is painter's tape. And, the green patch will eventually become cream colored.

We are still trying to decide if the trim around the fireplace should be white or the color of the wall. What do you think?

Next time I have a completely fascinating post like this I will save it until the weekend, but give me a break- we have 3 days left until photos are taken for our house listing. 

Just 2 steps left until we can check this Chronicle off the list!

Step 1: Move in. Put in whatever furniture we had. Hang art.

Step 2: The Craigslist deal of a lifetime. New Sectional Sofa.

Step 3: New coffee table (Step 3 Introduction found here)

Step 4: DIY remote control holder. A tiny, tiny step, but we are still calling it one.

Step 5: Should we change out the fireplace?

Step 6: The plant table and the plants

Step 7: Finishing touches

In case you can't wait the 3 steps we have left to see the finished product. Here it is:

It is birthday season!!! Happy Birthday to my GRANDMA and to Suzan!

I hope you two have spectacular birthdays!!!

ps I was still learning how to dye my hair when this photo was taken... hence the reason for the orange hair.

OO: 6 Ways To Control Your Cord Clutter!

The desks around my household tend to get pile-filed. We do not have the best desk systems in the world working here. The next three Organization Overhaul posts are going to be dedicated to decluttering and organizing your desk! Let's start with that crazy crazy mess you have hiding behind your desk.

It is time to CLEAN YOUR CORDS!

Let's get this party started. It is time to break it down!

Hook a little caddy under your desk to corral your cords.

You can buy this grassy fella on Amazon for $21 buckaroos. He's the classiest charging station I've ever seen. 

What a great idea for all of those USBs that are always floating around! 

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Reuse those bread clips so you can tell which cord is which.

Here's a sneaky one... get yourself a pretty book; chop that book up and remove the insides. And thennnnnnnnnnnnn you get to hide whatever kind of cord mayhem you have going on! In the photo below, a wireless router is hiding its ugly face under the lovely book.

The double whammy! This one has labeled cords and a fancy little cord caddy! What more could you possibly want out of uncluttered cords and cables? 

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One more cord holder for you

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Before and Afters are the best!

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Did I hear you say you wanted another before and after?

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Uh oh... it is Wednesday! And, you know what that means, it is time for:

Wednesday's Weekly Rather Question:

WYR...

eat two watermelons

or

three quarts of ice cream of your choice?

This was a Scott WYR, but I had to pull it out of him.

It is time for a one day early birthday shout out to Mrs. "Yup, it's a bag" herself!

The Electronic Forcefield Strikes Again

I should probably call this post, "The electronic spaz field strikes again."

I give you my happy blessing to skip to the end of the post if you don't feel like reading about the following things:

• my electronic forcefield
• me boo yaing my dad in 5th grade
• Cora's social Skype calendar

I told you a little bit about my electronic forcefield in the All About The Lists And The Lister section. My problem is that electronics like to bust up in my presence. 

The electronic forcefield has struck on numerous:

• hard-drives
• garage door openers
• stereos
• mp3 players
• blow dryers
• curling irons
• lamps
• cameras
• even a musical keyboard or two (which is especially weird considering I do not play the keyboard)

I am a lover of electronics!
I am obsessed with digital photos; I use the google phone quite a bit; I love to blog; I love to email; and have been known to use the programs, Paint and Calculator. Needless to say, I spend a lot of my time hooked up to the world of electronics. So, tonight, when my electronic forcefield struck my computer my dancing jazz hands slowed down to a flutter. And I am sorry to say, they soon stopped their fancy moves all together.

My mom and my sister are big on Skyping with Cora. Even my 90 year old grandma Skypes with Cora! My dad just recently got into it too. Yay! They all usually call around the time that Cora is having her dinner and I put the computer on a stool in front of her.

Here is Cora Skyping with Aunt Kelly. Kelly just told Cora to put her "head down."

Cora offers them her food. I take it from her and give it to the screen. Then they pretend to eat it. Cora thinks it's pretty great! They test Cora out on her body part knowledge. My sister's favorite is to tell Cora to touch her head or hair. Cora goes straight for the noggin and greases it up good with her avocado hands.


Before I get to the point of the story let me just do a tiny bit more side-tracking.
My dad used to come in to eat lunch with me all the time in elementary school. I loved it! It was great! 

We were PROUD to be Garrisonville Gators!

My dad was kind enough to want to spend his lunch time with a 10 year old. It didn't hurt that he was also a big fan of school pizza! Finally, in 5th grade I told my dad that he probably shouldn't come eat with me every week anymore. That was about the same time I told him I didn't want to hold his hand in the mall anymore. They call that move the Double Crusher. I'm very sorry, dad! You are a wonderful dad and I should have been thrilled to have you come and eat with me. But I was getting ready to start middle school where you have to at least consider adopting a "too cool for school (aka parents)" attitude.

Back to the point:
Today, Cora only got to Skype with my dad for about 5 minutes. He called me on the phone and gave me a hard time about being too cool  for school and not taking his Skype call. I had just gotten home and I hadn't even looked at the computer yet. So, I pulled up the stool; put the laptop on it and called him on Skype. I got Cora's dinner ready quickly and then Scott walked in the door. Cora was starting to go ga-ga over Scott- she probably said "dada" 8,000 times today. She thinks he is the bee's knees. The scene was slightly chaotic so I told my dad to scram... that our Skype time was over. Actually, I said it very nicely. He jokingly accused me of pulling the old "you can't eat lunch with me" routine on him again. Somewhere during this whole mess the computer fell. I heard my dad saying things like, "what in the world! what is going on here? What kind of Skype call is this?" I picked the computer back up and it seemed alright. So, we said goodbye. Cora said goodbye about 10 times after we hung up. She loves saying goodbye. She says it in the most adorable southern accent you have ever heard. My heart melts when she says it.

Fastforward one delicious dinner by Scott and a baby in bed later... I went to get on the computer. Busted! Electronic forcefield struck again. The darn thing wouldn't charge. I grabbed my hard drive and backed up as much as I could before the battery ran out. I didn't get to back it all up. Most likely, the computer will have to be scrapped but we will be able to keep the hard drive. It won't be the end of the world if I lost everything because I try to back it up every month or so.

PEOPLE... I AM HERE TO TEACH YOU LIFE LESSONS! 
BACK UP YOUR COMPUTERS! 
I suggested you do it here but I'm going to try to persuade you one more time.
Just think about it- if your computer was to suddenly be struck by my electronic forcefield how much stuff would you lose? How upset would you be? How much would you spend to try to get it all back?