Teen girl bedroom makeover: part 1

My daughter Isabelle will be thirteen this year.  Thirteen!!  She wants her room to be more coordinated and decorated.  We've been working on it here and there.  Her big sister demanded she get rid of things helped her go through all her clutter.  Her walls are a very soft pale, barely there blue. Instead of paint the walls bright colors, we are bringing in colors in other areas.  She wants her colors to be coral, grays and blues.  We're on the hunt for the perfect bedding but in the mean time, we thrifted this large mirror and brought in a cabinet I had in another room.  We painted them both gray to bring them together.  I made this paper garland and we already had the tissue paper flowers.

 Also on the list are cute coordinating baskets or boxes for her to store her things inside the cabinet.

 

The girls are currently making some art to hang on her walls.  It's coming together and she loves it so far.

A Pretty little Pantry

You  know how sometimes it takes someone else's perspective to get you to see how better something can be?  Yeah that happens a lot with me.  I don't know if I live in tunnel vision or what.  But lucky for me, I have a sister who doesn't.  She proposed the idea of moving my food pantry to a bigger pantry that I wasn't utilizing it's full capacity.  So I invited her to come help me, and she did!!
She has vision.  I covet her vision.  She can see how it should be.  I have to be shown.  I'm sure there's a psycological term for that.
Anyway, I only got one before picture of the previous larger pantry.  Bad blogger.
As you can see, this is a walk in pantry.  See the empty space down there at the bottom where no shelves are??  That drove my sister crazy!  Wasted space drives her crazy. Again, probably something psycological.   This is what it looked like before, kind of a catch all modge podge space.

We cleaned out, got rid of things, drilled, made home depot runs, drilled and sawed, painted, shopped and shopped some more.  It was exhausting.  We were exhausted.  We did this in 24 hrs. minus sleeping time.  I'm elated, ecstatic, and excited with my new pantry.  Take a look.

 

No more wasted floor space.

 We hung this peg board to hang baskets, brooms,  and a step stool to maximize even more space.

 Cute corn cob mold and chalkboard for the cute factor.

 We found a lot of these smaller baskets at goodwill

We both thought a clock would look cute in there.

 

It looks so old fashioned to me

Here is the after of the pantry where I used to keep our food.  It's now used to store my paint, cooking appliances, food storage and even the dog beds.

We even had time to build a couple of shelves in my hall linen closet and organize it.  She's a whirlwind, that sister!  She keeps me on my toes and organized.
Being organized feels so good, like losing weight, but a lot easier.
Thanks, Bev!  Keep your visions coming.

Tuesdays Treasures

Happy Birthday America!

I wanted to do a little more 4th of July decorating than I normally do.  I didn't want to go out and buy things though.  I always love the look of a banner or pennant.  This paper banner was quick, easy and I used paper I had.  I put some flags I had into the wooden crate and hung the stars and stripes decoration on my old window.  4th of July mantle.

 

 

About a year ago I had my girls go get a pallet in my neighborhood.  They had quite a hard time of it because there was stuff piled on top of it.  I didn't know what I wanted to do with it at the time, so it just sat out by the wood pile.  Patiently waiting.  And then pinterest came to the rescue.

As soon as I saw a pallet flag, I knew that's what my pallet would become.  A couple of dollars in craft paint and about thirty minutes later.

 

 I really love it.  It brings my patio to patriotic life.  And if I get tired of the flag, I can always turn it over and plant a garden in it!   Thank goodness for Pallets and Pinterest.

Happy 4th of July!!!

Caribbean

Here's just a snippet of our Caribbean trip.  It was wonderful! We flew into San Juan, Puerto Rico which took pretty much all day. Here's some pictures of us in Old San Juan the next day.

 El Morro, the old fort.  It took over two hundred to build it. It's huge!

We boarded our ship and set sail for St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. We did a kayak and snorkel excursion there.  It was a lot of fun.

 

 Next stop, Barbados.  We didn't have anything planned there, so we just found a beach and spent the day there.  Beautiful!

 Look at all the colors of the Sea!

He'd be so mad if he knew I put this pic up.  shhhhhh.
I loved the colorful buildings, old churches and boardwalk.

Next stop is St. Lucia.  We did an island tour and really enjoyed getting a look at this beautiful island.

Then on to St. Kitts.  I think this was my favorite island because of it's beauty and it seemed to not have so much of the tourist attraction as the others.

Our last island was St. Maarten.  The dutch side is St. Maarten, The French side is St. Martin.  But it's all good.

We spent an extra day in Puerto Rico before flying home.  It was a wonderful trip and we had a great time!!  No broken planes, no night spent in the airport, no sun poisoning like our last cruise.  Just fun in the sun and relaxation.

 Don't worry, be happy!