Living Room Spruce Up

The dust was piling up and I was tired of looking at the same stuff in the same places. This means that my design brain and my neat-freak-brain fuse into a scary concoction and I kick my butt into high gear to whip things back into shape. I take everything off of my lovely Ascend bookcase, end table, and anywhere else things might have piled up over the last couple of weeks.

I am the worst when it comes to putting paperwork away. Mail, newspapers, coupons, and other paper crap pile up like there's no tomorrow. I drive myself crazy with it, so I know Hubby wants to rip his hair out. Lucky for us, I put on my Monica Gellar hat and was in de-clutter mode. It. Is. Gone! YAY! - at least until next week...

So after a good wipe-down, and using just what I had on hand, this is what I came up with:

We are adult-only from the waist up over here.

The only new things up there are the mantle clock, the wooden elephants (more on those here), the new mirror I got on clearance at Joann's for $19.97 (originally $80!), and the West Elm Recycled Glass Stacking Bottles that literally went on sale an hour after I ordered them. Thankfully, they have great customer service and gave me my money back. Yay! But they're still on sale. I love it!

I had been eyeing this mirror for a while. It totally made my day when I saw it was on it's 2nd mark down! Woohoo! I'm loving the touch of rustic this mirror gives off. I've been trying to figure out what to put in this blank spot, and finally...that problem has been solved!

A little side note: This poor mirror had to spend it's first night alone in my car because as I was unloading my car, I went to go throw some trash away. Not 5' away from me was a skunk that ran into the dumpster area ahead of me. I let out a silent scream, sprinted back to my car, grabbed Will out of his car seat, and sprinted into the house. After getting into the house, out of breath, I barely managed to tell Hubby, "Skunk. Outside. Almost. Died." Kids got sprayed more than once in our neighborhood by a skunk last summer. Yuck! Noooooooooo thank you!

I decided it was time to stop doing things in sets of 3... so I've bumped up to 5s. I like to walk on the wild side. So here's the party of five ... vases/glass-things on the middle shelf.

Elephants on parade on my shelf, which is fitting since this is the Disney DVD shelf. These are from my Hubby's dad. I guess he used to collect them and his kids would gift them to him. Well, when you're moving across country, it's time to divvy your possessions up. While we were helping Hubby's mom pack up, Will helped me pick out his favorites. It just so happened we ended up with a nice round group of 5 in varying sizes and colors. They're so cute!

And now the crown jewel that has a happy home in the top corner of our bookcase:


The DVDs will be getting a new home eventually... But for now, they all live together happily.

I love this clock! It's so different from anything else we have in our house. And the attention to detail is amazing!

Rawr!

She's got LEGS!

Look at that face!

Even though it's like looking up her skirt, here's the back. It's cool how they charred the back because it stayed better than if it was painted.

And a peek inside at all the cool mechanics!

While I was cleaning and rearranging, Will's new lizard friend found a new home... Can you spot him?



There he is! Or, as we say in our house, "Dere he is!". Yes, that's Steve the lizard. He must be a chameleon because he blends into my pillow ever so nicely... I guess he can stay...

Are you still doing some spring/summer cleaning and rearranging? I feel like I just keep checking things off my list and then adding others. We're in the process of finishing up my kitchen hutch makeover. A nice coat of protector and she's ready to rock!