painting again

so, remember when i painted the foyer and the dining room?  i finally painted the living room that's between those two rooms.  but, am i the only one who finds that starting one project often leads to another?  like a project snowball?

the thing is my living room is the first room you see when you come inside my house.  it also happens to be my creative space.  which happens to be a mess more often than not.  of course, if you were to come over i'd throw everything in plastic bags and hide it in the garage clean it up first.  unless you were my mom.  she's seen the mess and she still loves me.  i started painting it and then it DAWNED on my finally to switch our formal living room with the family room that is situated right behind it at the back of the house.  we couldn't do this when we first moved in because the cable outlet was in the family room and so it seemed natural to have the tv and couch and all that there.  but since we got rid of cable a year ago, we haven't been tied to the cable line.  yes it took me a year to realize that, but whatever.

the thought hit me mid-morning to switch the furnishings and so i jumped on it.  i knew i had a deadline, the kids would be home in about 4 hours.  the hubby shortly after that.  i had to get it all done before he came home all while taking care of a three year old.  patience is not my virtue, neither is thinking through ideas.

i did it though.  i emptied all the fabric into plastic bins (i even managed a hardware store run within those 4 hours), moved all the children's books and craft supplies out.  switched furnishings and i even moved the piano. by myself.  across the carpeted family room.  i wasn't playing around.  i'm even a little surprised with how quickly i did it.  needless to say, when my two big kids came home off the bus they were floored to say the least.

after much deliberation, here's the before of the formal living room.

oh, wait. that's a cute kid.  

okay, i'm going to take a deep breath and show the living room, my craft space, at it's worst...okay normal.  it's really bad.  like really bad.  but i'm being so honest here.  (my hubby will probably hate me for posting this pic)

i'm only showing a portion of it mainly because it was the only picture i had.  you can see where i've already started painting when the mood to switch rooms hit.  seriously terrible, right.  it was one of those things where i get going to make a project and then couldn't  find what i was looking for and so i had to search through everything and then a kid would call me and need me and i'd have to leave the project to help the kid and then it'd be time to make dinner and then i'd have to clean up dinner and then get kids to bed and by then i was too tired to go back to the project.  and so it would sit there until the next day and the cycle would start over again.  

onto prettier things now, okay.  forget the last picture.  really forget it, esp. if you know me in person

brought in the couch from the family room, end tables were in the garage since i didn't have a place before for them.  thomas is the only toy allowed to live in here. i like having a room that isn't taken over by kid toys.

brought in my fav blue thrifted chair.  i raised the curtain rods and added a fabric swath to lengthen my existing curtains.  one went missing during the move.

the black cabinet used to hold my fabric, now it holds my tv.  like it's supposed to. 

the lovely blue thrifted chair again.

ahhh...it's so much better now.  and it actually stays clean like this.    (of course, right now there is a tree in it and things were moved around a bit to accommodate that.)

i'll show the family room which is now a craft/play space a little later.  i'm still working out the kinks....