We finally decided on a color! It's the top one in this picture -- Olympic's Secret Passage. Can't wait to paint! :)
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This past weekend I installed the Ikea Lenda curtains I mentioned for the master bedroom moodboard. How did I end up choosing Ikea Lenda? Well first of all, it's everything I was looking for. It's white, it's pretty, it's inexpensive ($20 for 2 panels) and it's of good quality. This curtain really is the perfect choice. And secondly (and more importantly), we have a private eye at home (hint: his initials are DKJ) who have strict standards about curtain opacity. All curtains in the Jeng household must pass the "none see-through" test. Said private eye will perform this test to ensure it meets this level of quality. So you can imagine my relief when he gave it the green light. I felt like I survived an audit. Phew. :) And the best part was, we woke up to a room filled with light this morning! I am so used to waking up to a dark room that this was a nice surprise for me. I'm beginning to wonder if the room is dark because it's facing East or if it's dark because of our super-duty light-blocking silk curtains. Which is making me think more about the choice of gray in the room. Maybe we can go a little bit further with the gray? I got another paint sample yesterday so we can check that out later. :)
After we got home from the library today we decided to check mail. To my delight, there was a key to the larger mail box! Yay! I love getting packages! So I excitedly opened the larger box and was completely and absolutely delighted to get a surprise package from my friend, Lokuo! This is where I apologize for my horrible camera skills. The photo does not do justice. Everything was sooo beautifully packaged. I didn't want to open them for fear of messing it all up, while really wanting to open them all at the same time!
My favorite packaging is definitely the dictionary page + doily. Sooo gorgeous. And my favorite item is the card. :) Thanks for the reminder, my dear, to serve in a way that pleases Him. I shall keep that in my mind. And thank you so very much for being my friend. :) I feel so lucky and blessed. So I am having a wonderful weekend so far and I've sort of made progress on a few miscellaneous things with no results to show for any of it. Here they are. 1. Ruffle Curtains Not sure if you remember, but I imagined having white ruffle curtains in the master bedroom would be so lovely against the future gray wall. It's nice and light while having a great dose of texture. I had posted that Urban Outfitters are selling some ruffle curtains for $79 per panel. Yes, that would put me at $160 for two. They're beautiful to be sure, but isn't that price just ridiculous? There are a couple of other issues I have with these besides the price. First of all, the panels are not wide enough for our windows. I like panels with generous widths (Ikea is really good about this). And secondly, I was hoping for longer ruffles. So, after seesawing between making or buying, I've finally convinced myself that I can somehow make my own. Last week I got some flat sheets from Walmart (2 twin & 2 full) for $30 total and I've just washed & dried them. Now it's sewing/ruffling time. *shivers* Wish me luck! 2. Fabric for Benches I have been on a lookout for fabric for the benches for Pinterest Challenge #1. I was having trouble figuring out how proper I wanted this to be. The most proper choice would be to use linen (with the best ones being Belgian Linen--you know, the same type as ones on Restoration Hardware chairs). I saw an Esty store selling them and the seller even sent me some free swatches. After getting the swatches I wasn't convinced that I should spend $30/yd for this fabric. I went to Joann several times as well. I know people have used duck canvas to reupholster and even though it's pretty cheap ($10/yd and Joann always has 50% off coupons), it was just too rough for my liking. I also tried joann.com and saw some promising fabric. But I really don't like the online store return policy (you can't return to physical stores) so I didn't take the plunge. Finally, I found the fabric in the most unlikely place possible: Ikea. I ended up getting 1.5 yards of Ikea Minna fabric in bleached today. At $6.99/yd, it was still very affordable and it feels substantial & durable without feeling too rough. It was the perfect choice for me since this is my first time tufting, I really don't need the pressure of working with expensive fabric! I really like the texture of this fabric, too. :) Here's to hoping I can make it out of this challenge with something to show for it. 3. The Perfect Shade of Gray? After having a ton of gray paint chips up for months, I finally went to Home Depot (or was it Lowe's?) to get a color sample. I decided on 50% Olympic Thin Ice and 50% Olympic Secret Passage. Since I thought one was too light and the other was too dark, a blend of the two should be perfect right? Earlier today I painted a swatch of our bedroom with this 50/50 mix. The sun was out today so I had felt that it was a tad too light - almost silvery even. So I'm currently leaning towards getting another sample in 100% Secret Passage. But I'm waiting for evening to come to see how it looks then. Also, David is out on visitation today so I'm waiting for him to come home to see what he thinks, too.
Seeing that it's already December, I gave my 2011 Pinterest Challenges a quick review. I haven't started Challenge #1 yet because I'm stuck on what fabric to choose for the benches. Challenge #2 is deferred until 2012 because I have bigger plans for the master bedroom. I completed Challenge #3 (yay!). And I want to close Challenge #4 here. So Challenge #4 was to add some organization to the house. It was a pretty broad challenge and not one that I'll ever say "i'm done!" on, but I just share what I've done and call this challenge done for now. :) 1. Organized Kitchen Pantry So nothing dramatic happened after this Pinterest Challenge, but I did realize that sometimes more really is more. It's ironic to think that you need to get organizers so that you can actually store more things, but it's true! And of course even though I'm calling this challenge done, I'm always looking to see what other spaces/nooks can be organized. These are a few things I have in mind to organize:
In general, I think that having a place for everything and being organized probably increases my happiness and probably lowers my blood pressure. Haha. I also save time by knowing where everything is. And I think we save some money by not buying repeats of things we forgot we have. Somehow for me it's very much like wearing tailored clothes (not that I have any). But I can imagine that when all the seams are perfectly measured for your body, you feel really good. Likewise when everything has a place in the home, the home works with/for you. At the very least - it just feels good to step into a clean house or open the doors to an organized pantry. So that's what makes it worth it for me. |
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