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Sunday, April 17, 2011

Two niches down, the entire upstairs to go

We’ve been kind of paralyzed about decorating since moving. We want to redo a bunch of the rooms, but don’t even know where to start. So the walls were bare until this weekend when I finally said “that’s it, we’re not living like this any longer, we are hanging s&*! up and I don’t care if we change it in a month, we know how to fill nail holes.”

So little by little our house is feeling a teeny bit more like home. Our pictures are all up in the downstairs (wahoooooo!), and Maggie and I even made progress on the two massive, ceiling-height art niches. We got this neat pottery and wood-ring vase and filled it with funky dried plant and seed pod stuff. Here’s what it looks like from the hallway:DSC_4436LR

And here’s what it looks like from the front door. You can see our two princesses in the background checking out my first attempt at a tissue-paper flower, which will be one of the decorations at our egg hunt this weekend. And you can see the didgeridoo TubaDad got in Australia pre-kids:DSC_4451LR

The big niche over the stairs finally, finally has something other than dust in it. We picked up an awesome textured pottery vase (at least I think it’s pottery, damn thing feels like it weighs more than the Prius): and a talllllllll mirror to live behind the vase. TubaDad was less than thrilled when Maggie and I showed up with the mirror and excitedly asked him to please hang it, but he was game. And smart -- he immediately called my dad. Luckily, my folks were around to evaluate the problem.DSC_4441LR

By the way, TubaDad and I thought the hanging wire should be strung straight across between the two hangers, but my NASA engineer dad explained something about sines and cosines and how the force on the wire increased exponentially as you straightened the angle, and we just figured we should quit yapping because clearly he knew best.

Both pieces were tricky, and the vase in particular was staggeringly heavy:
DSC_4444LRDSC_4453LR

But now they’re up there and we never, ever have to move them (because we are never, ever moving again). The colors look a little funky in these pictures, by the way. All of the walls you can see are a dark tan and the niches are medium brown (the niches photograph kind of reddish/rusty in these shots and that’s not quite how they look):DSC_4455LR

Many, many thanks to our crackerjack decorating team of Maggie (shopping) and TubaDad/BobBob/Wela (trigonometry and manual labor)!

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SpringFling_thumb2_thumb1Post #17 of my Spring Fling 30 posts in 30 days. You know it’s interesting that the more I post the faster I get. I think I worry less about each word and just get something out there, which is way more fun. These awesome bloggers are also participating in the Spring Fling and are kicking butt with this challenge: And babies make four…, Another Journey, Birdie and the Queen Bee, Catherine’s Chatter, Diary of a Nouveau Soccer Mom, Dragonflies, Journey to Motherhood, Koprowski Kids, Life with L and M (julialaine.net), Love and a Little Craziness, Mindful of Mine, Moments with Maisie, No Ordinary Family, One Plus One Equals Four, Our Boy and His Cricket, Searching for Sophie, Spectacular S, Three Kids = Chaos, To Vietnam and China, We’re Here.

19 comments:

  1. Anonymous4/17/2011

    You and Maggie have great eyes! Are the vases earthquake proof and (more importantly) twinado proof?!

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  2. Hey thanks!!

    And yes, excellent question, we still haven't earthquake/twinado proofed anything in the house, which is NOT GOOD. In the old house all of the tall furniture (like bookshelves, cabinets, etc.) were bolted straight into studs, and all the heavy decorations were adhered in place with museum putty, and we need to get on that. I'm adding it to our To Do list stat.

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  3. I'm so glad no one was injured in the completion of the niches. :-) I absolutely love the vase and mirror combo, it's very striking. I also love seeing how others decorate their homes, it's a bit voyeuristic, but it's interesting how it gives you more insight into who people are. Not to mention decorating ideas. ;-)

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  4. Anonymous4/18/2011

    Love both vases. They're awesome! The mirror was a great idea, too. You're doing great. Good job, M!

    Jane :-)

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  5. Anonymous4/18/2011

    Looks great:) We too moved from a smaller home into a much larger home and still have many, many blank walls in our house. We've been in our house for almost 2 years though! I just haven't gotten motivated to commit the time and money required to get it done. We did buy some beautiful paintings at a market on our recent trip to Colombia to adopt our son, so maybe now I"ll be motivated to get them framed and hung;)
    ~Nicole

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  6. love it!!!!!!!!! and your dad just rocks!!!!! i love the colors of the walls- wouldn't change 'em

    never even thought about earthquake proofing things-- yikes-- don't get those out here in CO. so good to have you posting again-- missed ya this winter:)

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  7. OMG, sines/cosines: I had totally mentally blocked that out of my mind! Blech. So glad you have such a talented dad to help. Aren't dads like that priceless!

    We haven't finished the earthquake-proofing yet either and I feel like we should really finish it up soon.

    Looking good on the accessorizing (and this is coming from a professional Interior Designer ;)

    -Heather

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  8. Looks lovely, great decorating job.

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  9. Very nice! You've got a great team of helpers there. :)

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  10. Wow....massive work but so worth it in results. Lovvvve the (2 ton) vase. Really lovely!

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  11. Well, I love that mirror. And now I need to get my google on to figure out what Bob Bob was talking about with the whole tension nonsense, since I think I'll be trotting off to my nearest Ikea to get me a giant mirror for our vault...

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  12. Mama Beans, do you have a TJMaxx HomeGoods store near you? That's where the ginormous mirror came from and they have so many gorgeous mirrors that are really affordable.

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  13. Very nice! I heart ginormous mirrors. Have a couple myself. Funny...that was my first thought too. The earthquake factor. We have to strap everything to everything around here. Just part of the fun.
    Hope you all remain injury free (pulled muscles, etc.) during the making of your new home!
    M.

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  14. Brenda4/18/2011

    I immediately suspected TJMaxx for the great mirrors. Just redid a guest room and did the same thing! And I completely understand the geek thing - I have a retired aerospace engineer CEO husband who speaks slide-rule.

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  15. Man it looks awesome!!!!!

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  16. Anonymous4/18/2011

    May I borrow Maggie, please? We've made an offer on another house which was accepted. Now I must make my current home presentable to sell & then make the new house a home.

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  17. LOVE IT! How did you learn to do he tissue paper flowers??? I have seen them around and LOVE them!

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