Now that spring has arrived in Wisconsin, I've been giving a lot of thought to our backyard.  It will evolve and change a lot in the next couple of years so I will have time to think things over.

This week, I have been searching for creative ways to hide our air conditioning unit in the back of the house.  I see that a lot of people build a cube around it, but I want to incorporate it into the landscape, more of less. There's probably a lot of you out there in the same situation, so here's a round up of some of my favorite ideas so far.

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Or maybe I could mount something to the front to use the vertical space like this:

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Any favorites?

Since I've been thinking about pillows so much the past couple weeks, I feel like I should share the wealth of knowledge I've accumulated.  You know why?  Because you guys are nice.

Here's some affordable options to add a bit of ethnic vibe to your space.

I put together a couple different looks just for fun.

Look 1:

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So let's talk about the family room today.

This room has been a challenge.  It was one of the, if not "the", most damaged room in the house.  The floor boards were buckled.  There was a hole in the ceiling from the leaking patio above it.  It had three layers of wallpaper.  Critters had obviously been inhabiting this space.  And it has this light fixture (audible gasp).

I love all the comments from the recent paint tutorial I posted. It seems that a lot of you are in the painting process too.  I'd love to see your befores & afters!

I've spent the past couple nights searching for pillows for the family room and living room.   I love to mix and match colors, textures and patterns, but don't want the room to feel chaotic.  Here's what I've come up with so far:

Family Room:


 The living room is a little more challenging.  It's a fairly formal space with a fireplace, built ins, cove ceiling and lots of natural woodwork.  Also challenging is the mustard-hued sofa that I thought it was a good idea to order about nine years ago. I love the sofa, but it's nearly impossible to find pillows to go with it.  I want the decor to feel relaxed and a bit funky to counteract all the traditional features going on in there.  Here's what I am thinking:



I know.  It's a lot of pillows, lots of pattern.  I am still trying to narrow it down.  The wall color in there is Benjamin Moore's Horizon Gray and the patterned rug is from Ebay.

I ordered one pillow so far from Etsy and it just arrived today!



I love how little things can really change a room.  I'm excited to narrow down the pillow search!  Any favorites?

Today is just one of those days.  Nothing in particular to be stressed or anxious about, but I am grumpy nonetheless.

I did some errands this morning and it took longer than I expected.  While I was putting a shopping cart away, one of the kids turned on the hazard lights.  While loading the baby into a cart, one of the kids tipped the cart over.  We got home and I realized that I forgot to go to the library so I had to head back out again. By the time we got home, I was so hungry and wanted a donut and cup of coffee, like, now.  But we have no donuts.  And no coffee because I broke the coffee pot last night.

And why did I break the coffee pot?  There was a spider on my wrist while I was putting the coffee pot away last night.  I am not one to freak out about spiders, but I have been noticing a certain type around here that I am pretty sure is a brown recluse spider (a.k.a. poisonous).  We think this is the spider that bit Greg this summer and landed him in the ER.  Anyway, I saw the spider and broke the pot and trapped the poisonous thing in a jar so I could identify it without squashing its brains out.

But the girls saw the poisonous spider in the glass jar this morning, named it Twisty and now think it's our new pet.  "Yes, girls, Mommy & Daddy got this new poisonous spider for you to play with. Just be careful its fangs don't embed in your flesh too deeply now." 

So I have a poisonous jarred spider named Twisty staring me in the face on the kitchen counter with all its eyeballs, no doubt plotting its revenge against me for the slow and merciless death I am allowing it to have while I google information about its kind and how to kill them all.

I pulled out an old cappuccino maker and made a fabulous cup of coffee and had three pieces of Easter candy to ease the donut craving. I put the coffee in my new mug (thanks, Kara!), take a deep breath and decide that I can make it through the day.


I decide to to finish the upholstery job on a chair in the girls' playroom.   This chair is half done and I am prepared to tackle the rest, but someone (certainly not one of my children), must have snuck into our home last night to place a blue marker on the fabric and let it bleed a large blue spot.  And then left.  Certainly my children wouldn't have done this. So I have to take the fabric off and see if I can salvage it.

So no donuts, blue stains, badly behaved children, poisonous arachnid under glass kind of day.

How're all you guys doing out there?  Hang in there.