Living Room Refresh

Hello friends and welcome back or welcome if you are visiting for the first time. I thought it was a good time to write a blog post since I have a little extra time on my hands today. I have been trying to do some fall cleaning and a little sprucing up around the house and thought I would share my living room with you today. Not a lot has changed, but enough has to share so here we go. 

Back in April I shared that I moved my vintage record cabinet from the craft room to the living room. It is still here and I like it here for now. I did change the decor on top but that is all. We are hoping to build an entry off the front of our home eventually. I have always wanted an entry with a coat closet and a place to drop things off to keep the living room a little less cluttered. That is a project for down the road though as we have other more important things lined up first. We are still working on the master bathroom and then the master bedroom will be next. I am so ready to finish those rooms! 

I purchased new living room rugs. You can see the one at the door here. It matches the bigger one. I also took down the dark grey patterned curtains and put up some tan and white ones that let more light in.

You can see the big rug here. I love it...the colors are cream and tan with cerulean blue as an accent color. It is really pretty. I purchased them from Wayfair.

I also purchased some new pillows at JoAnne's Fabrics earlier in the week. I love the black and cream buffalo check and think it is perfect for fall and winter. 

 I love the saying on this pillow. 

Our home is very important to us...it is our happy place!

A few weeks ago I purchased the wooden box at Michael's to house the dog toys. 

It says Play. :)

I found this pretty cream and green bouquet at JoAnne's also and love it. I am using more subdued colors for fall this year. I just placed the bouquet in a vase and sat it on top of a place mat along with a couple coffee table books and a coaster.

Isn't it pretty?

I printed a new piece for the gallery wall clipboard. I still love my gallery wall!

I purchased a snuggly, soft new blanket to coordinate with the new rug and curtains a little better. I really want to recover my ottoman but haven't gotten around to it yet.

I placed this pillow from Ikea on my chair as well since I bought the new ones for the couch.

The copper chicken wire basket on the bottom shelf of my side table holds magazines as well as tissues, lotion, and a couple different zipper bags that contain anything from earbuds to eyeglass cleaners. I like to keep often used things handy.

The top just holds a cute Hobby Lobby frame with a photo of the hubby and I, a candle from Target which smells heavenly, a coaster, and a small lamp.

No major changes, but just enough for it to feel fresh and new again. I am enjoying the simple changes. Hopefully I will have a new bathroom to share soon! 

I hope you are doing well and enjoying fall weather. We haven't had any real fall like weather yet...just a hint in the air occasionally. Enough to make us want it to hurry up and get here. Have a lovely week ahead and until next time.....

A Little Rearranging

Hello friends! Hope you are doing well and enjoying your day. Today is Saturday, April 1st and I am  at home sick. I decided to keep myself  busy with a few little projects even though I feel terrible. I have been wanting to put a different table under my hat/coat rack and mirror in the living room. I don't have a formal entry or coat closet in my home so I have to improvise. I decided to try this vintage record cabinet that I have had for a few years. It has been living in my craft room since I bought it home. You can see it in the photo below. It's the white piece beneath the blue framed chalkboard.

Here it is in the living room...

I think I like it! The inside is perfect for stashing our flip flops as well.

I like how how it looks with the white chevron hat racks we made. I think it will live here for a while! I have always loved rearranging things....even as a kid. I can't do much rearranging with my large pieces of furniture, but I can play around with the smaller ones when I get a hankering. :)

Anywho, moving it out of the craft room left a void....I can't have that now can I? This is after all, the junky room in my home. Every nook and crannie has to be filled! So, I remembered I had this little corner shelf that used to belong to my Granny Valentine. It was tucked away in the craft room closet so out it came to fill the space. I decided to store my paints in here as well as my Cricut and Xyron sticker machine.

Paint...

and more paint.

The top holds a few of my apothecary jars filled with odds and ends. I think I will use some of that paint on the shelf soon. It needs to be brightened up a bit I think! I think it would look neat to paint the outside white and each shelf a different color. 

We shall see....stay tuned....maybe over summer break!

The record cabinet had about twice this many jars on it as this shelf holds, so I decided to empty some of them. I had this wooden jewelry box that I had formerly used as a tool box. I emptied it a while back and I was planning to donate it but something kept telling me not to get rid of it. I'm glad I didn't because it was perfect for this project.

Sorry for the blurry photos...I didn't realize they were fuzzy until I uploaded them. You get the idea though! I filled the drawers and then labeled them. 

It holds lots of things...mostly wood items, but also my vintage silverware that I plan to make something out of one day.

Now I have several empty jars and I'm planning to get rid of a few. I have some empty space in the closet to do something with now as well. That's a project for another day though. I am feeling pretty lousy so the remainder of the day will be spent being lazy. Mama is making me some chicken and dumplings later and I am so excited! She makes the best and I always crave them when I'm sick. I have the best Mama in the world. (Thank you if you're reading this Mama. I love you!) 

I did a little more cleaning and organizing in my craft room before I called it quits. I also updated my planner for next week. I like to add washi tape and stickers every week to make it pretty. I just noticed it matches my pretty box that holds my pens and pencils. 

And, that's a wrap! I'm off to find something to watch on TV. Maybe a good Hallmark movie! I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Until next time.....

Weekend Recap

Hello friends! Welcome back to Willie Mae Lane. I am so glad I have gotten back to blogging. I missed it so much but maybe the break was what I needed. Anywho, I just got home from my first day back to work after my spring break. It was a very good day...Mondays usually are though. I think attitude determines how your day will flow so I try to start each one with a positive attitude. Today I want to share my weekend with you.

Saturday began with my 8:00 AM workout. After that, I dashed home to shower and get ready to head to Gainesville. When I posted last, I mentioned that I was going to see Beauty and the Beast on Saturday with some of my family. I picked  up my sister Nancy and my Aunt Loretta and we headed to Gainesville to meet my daughter Miranda and my sister's girls, Shelby and Taylor. They all live there. 

We met at Square 1, which is a great place to eat. They have wonderful, unique burgers which is what I usually get, but this time I tried something different. I had the Aloha Chicken sandwich and sweet potato fries. The sandwich was a grilled ground chicken patty with applewood smoked bacon, grilled pineapple, and a terryaki & ginger sauce on it. Oh my was it delicious!

After lunch, we went to see Beauty and the Beast. I had pre-ordered our tickets because we didn't want to risk not getting them. The movie was outstanding! It is my favorite Disney movie of all time and I didn't think they could do anything to improve it, but they did. They added some parts that gave a little more history of both Belle and the Beasts lives. It was so very good and I will definitely purchase this one when it is released.

I picked up an order from Pier 1 while I was in Gainesville. I had to put my blinders on when I went in the store because they had all their spring decor out and oh my...everything was so gorgeous!

I loved this sweet place setting!

I went in for this though! I had mentioned here a couple months ago that I really wanted this tiered tray for my coffee cart but I thought it would be too big. Well, I decided I just had to have it so I ordered it online while there was a 15% off sale going on and just picked it up in the store. I do not regret my decision to purchase this piece. This piece is so versatile and can be used for many things over the years. 

I LOVE it! Galvanized and copper...does it get any better?

Here it is styled for spring.

After I got home Saturday evening, the hubby and I went to visit his mom and her boyfriend. She is doing very well with her treatments. She is finished with chemo and will finish radiation this week. She has tolerated the treatments so well. The only issue she had was a blood clot where her port was placed so they removed it. She hasn't lost her hair yet either and the doctors told her she probably won't at this point. She will have to wait three months for another scan to see if the treatments worked and I'm sure waiting won't be easy. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. They mean so much!

Sunday I piddled around the house finishing little projects, tweaking my decor and so on. I was itching to paint something else with the milk glass paint I purchased last week. This lamp was already painted white, but as you can see in the picture, it was quite dingy. The paint had a flat finish and dust was hard to get off. 

So, I sprayed it with the milk glass paint and it is so pretty now! It will be easier to clean now as well.

I added one of my old ladders to the end of the sofa to hold blankets. I am enjoying this addition to the living room. I also moved the tulips from the dining table to the coffee table. 

They look so pretty..... I wish I could keep fresh tulips here all the time!

I purchased this adorable frame at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago and printed a picture of the hubby and I to clip in it for now. This is an old picture but one of my favorites. 

I purchased this piece at Hobby Lobby after the movie on Saturday to put in the new tiered tray from Pier 1. I decided to paint it since it was the same color as the tray. 

So, I used the new jade paint I purchased at the same time as the milk glass paint. It looks so pretty. I also picked up the sweet little white egg at Hobby Lobby.

The hubby and I had an awful craving for some warm home baked cookies, so I whipped up a batch. I hardly ever bake anymore since we are eating healthier most of the time. Every now and then though, you have to have a really good treat.

I was craving chocolate chip cookies but had none on hand, so I improvised. I had some Wilton Candy Melts left over in the freezer from Christmas. I substituted the buttered toffee flavored ones for chocolate chips in my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. I also added chopped pecans to half the batch and oh my, were they delicious! I think they were better than chocolate chip!

We both love chewy cookies and these fit the bill! Here's the hubby's plate with his milk. I'm not a milk drinker! I still have some of the candy melts in the freezer as well as some salted caramel ones for when we get a craving again. 

I picked this little box up at Harbor Freight on Friday when the hubby and I went to town. I wanted it for an organization project in my craft room.

I have been picking up sequins in the Target Dollar Spot each season when they get new colors. The containers they come in will not stay together after you pull the tape off, so I thought these little boxes would be perfect to store them in.

Lots of room to grow! There are 24 boxes and I only filled 9 of them.

I labeled the box with my handy dandy label maker...still one of my favorite thrifting finds of all time!

I enjoyed my spring break so much. I didn't do much away from home, but it was nice to have the time off from the stress of work. Teaching is fun and rewarding in many ways, but we teachers have an incredible amount of stress on us too. So much is expected of us and our students and when you teach in a high poverty area like I do, the stress is even greater. I do love my job and am not complaining, but these breaks help me get through the year. This school year is fast coming to an end...I can't believe we only have about 10 weeks of school left!

Thank you so much for visiting. 

I hope you all have a lovely week.  I hope to keep posting on a fairly regular basis so I will see you again soon!

Until then.....