Sunday, January 13, 2019

New Kitchen Rug

Right before Christmas my dishwasher broke. I tried to get it repaired but couldn't.  The repairman ended up getting water all over my hardwood floors and ruined my rug. The rug was five years old and I was ready for a new one. 😉
I looked all over for a true red rug. I had no idea how hard it would be to find one. I like a nice, bright kitchen and wanted a red rug to match my wedding china (Mikasa French Embassy Red that has since been discontinued).  Many of the rugs appeared red online but were really rust or burgundy.  In addition, I wanted a 2'6" x 8' rug but many of the rugs are narrower today. It seems like nearly every manufacturer has downsized their runners.
I also wanted a thick wool runner that was soft on the feet since I cook a lot. A red Persian rug would be ideal but out of the budget. My last rug was a red wool runner from Home Decorators.  The rug was nice but they have since been purchased by Home Depot if I recall. I went online and found this Safavieh Soho Roses runner in red and hoped it would work. 


The rug arrived in two days and was stunning! The color was a true red and exactly as pictured online. It matches my china. It is very soft and nice and thick. It laid flat right away.


Anyway, I couldn't be happier.  Safavieh saw my picture online and asked to use it which was cool. So if you go the Safavieh website, and scroll down, you can see it. 


Overall, I am very happy with it!



Christmas Decor 2018

For Christmas 2018, I wanted to add a little bit more glam to my living room.

In 2016, I created my glam Christmas tree and in 2017 I went in to have my knee replacement done and learned I had uterine cancer. I had a complicated surgery because they couldn't get my uterus out. My uterus was twice as large as normal and up very high so they had to do an abdominal surgery. It was a 5.5 hour surgery and a long recovery. Luckily, it was Stage 1 and they got it all but it took time to recover. I didn't feel well in 2017 so I didn't do a lot of decorating but feeling much better in 2018. I am hoping to have one of my knees replaced in the fall and will probably need to have hand surgery done soon for nerve damage in my hands as a result of the abdominal surgery.

Anyway, I wanted to go all out for 2018. I would describe my style as "old world traditional". I like very beautiful and glamorous decor.
I use fresh garland at Christmas.  I get it Costco. Their garland smells wonderful and is gorgeous! This past year it was a bit dry however which has never happened before. The first thing I created was the decor for my t.v. stand. I added a base of fresh garland, two new sequin Christmas trees from Michael's at 40% off along with some gold sprays for sparkle. I used my old world gold nativity set that I bought from Horchow a few years ago. I had been looking for one for years and when I saw this one, I knew it was the one I wanted! It sold out in three days. I have never seen any set like it.

The rest of my living room decor I have had for years and still love it so I used that.

A sweet picture of Matt when he was six weeks old at Christmas! Oh, how they grow so fast! He turned 27 in November!
 So pretty with the candle!
 A view of my kitchen and sign.

Matt's Twas the Night Before Christmas musical house sits on my hand painted chest in the foyer. He sits in his Lazy Boy chair and loves to watch it! It narrates the story and the windows light up. I bought this in 1996 and he still loves it today!
A picture of my living and dining room. My how things have changed since I bought this townhome five years ago!
 And my pretty little tree!
 My nativity set.
 More living room pics!
And my glam t.v. stand. I just love it! Funny story...I post on Instagram @dreammom90 mostly with pics of my decor (the blog was mostly Matt, Instagram is mostly decor). I was excited to post my Christmas pics, especially my glam mantel. My top 9 most liked photos came out for 2018 and none were of Christmas or my mantel! Not 🤳, not 🤳🤳, not 🤳🤳🤳 but 🤳🤳🤳🤳of my top 9 most liked posts were selfies of me! First I laughed, then I cried...I am either a terrible decorator or need to get better content! 😂 First world problems! Anyway, I felt truly blessed to celebrate another year.  It was tough. Scott fell in February on my drive last year on black ice and severed his quadricep tendon which required immediate surgery. It was tough taking care of Matt and helping him.  Then he had his hip replaced in August. Matt had some severe respiratory issues several times this year where he was on 10 liters of oxygen for weeks. But everyone recovered and made it through.  Then in November, I thought I had colon cancer and was truly depressed. I prayed and prayed and prayed again for God's mercy. I need to care for Matt. He needs his mother. I prayed and asked God to show me and direct my path. I am trying to do everything I can and to think the cancer was back was overwhelming.  In December, I had the most amazing surprise.  Not only did the bleeding stop but a secret santa gifted me with a wonderful gift that more than covered my new dishwasher and then some. Totally unexpected and wonderful! I felt enormously blessed. I am hopeful 2019 goes well. After having cancer, I know that every day is truly a gift! Hope everyone has a happy new year!


My Christmas Tree

Just wanted to pop in and share my Christmas tree. I got this tree back in 2016. Scott bought it for me for Christmas.  He asked me what I wanted and I mentioned I wanted a small pre-lit tree in an urn, for my living room. Since it is difficult to get out with Matt, he went to Home Depot to pick up the tree. After spending a lot of time on the website, I gave him two options: Option A and Option B but nothing else. I said if they didn't have these, don't get anything. 😁 Instead of those two options, he came home with this. 🤔 I hated it. It was ugly. I asked why he didn't get the other options and he said something like they didn't have them and the sales girl talked him into this. 🤬This is an outdoor tree! Anyway, I had two options. Have him return it or go with it. I decided to decorate it and if I didn't like it, I would return it and get something else. This is what he got me.
 

So the first thing I did was add another 700 lights to the tree. 300 lights was not going to cut it for a 6.5 foot tree.

Next, I added these floral sprays the I purchased from Walmart on clearance the year before. I think they were originally around $5.00 each and I paid $.75 each and bought as many as I could. At the time, I didn't know where I would use them but only that I loved them.

I added the floral sprays in a spiral motion going up the tree. I used my regular ornaments that I have purchased and collected over the last thirty to fourty years and then purchased some gold picks from Michael's for the top. I loved how it turned out! One of my prettiest trees ever!

Here are some pictures of a few of the ornaments.

More ornaments.

And pictures.


And the completed tree!

I think my favorite thing is how glamorous it is! I love red and gold at Christmas! I have put up this same tree every year now for three years and still love it! I hope you enjoy my tree as much as I did!


Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Fall Front Porch

Just wanted to share a few photos of my front porch for fall. We are doing fine. I had my front yard landscaped this summer and will show photos later but thought I would upload these real quick.

The best part is that it was pretty budget friendly.  I had the wreath and added a doormat from Hobby Lobby. The buffalo check rug and pillow covers were from Amazon. I got the pair for $9.99 and used two pillows I already had. They matched the rug exactly and they were surprisingly good quality.  The porch is rather small so I can't fit anything else really.  I have to get Matt's wheelchair out the front door so I have to keep things fairly simple. Hope everyone is having a great fall. It's been an extremely hot and humid summer here so cooler temperatures are most welcome!


 

Friday, May 05, 2017

Linen Closet Makeover

A few weeks ago, I decided to make over my linen closet. It was already organized but I needed to make "prettier". I moved into my townhome a few years ago but with Matthew, everything seems to take a while. He is not in school anymore so I don't really have any free time to myself. It is kind of like being an ICU nurse and doing everything else you need to do on top of working 24/7. Anyway, let's get to the closet! 

One of the first things I did when I moved in was to add the wire racks to the closet.  My townhome was a flip so everything was brand new, and I mean everything! New windows, doors, drywall, floors, furnace and just about everything you could think of however that meant that I didn't have any curtain rods, towel bars or anything. I had one wire shelf in there. That is the top shelf and I left that one and worked around it. I purchased wire racks and the hanging bar for the walls so I could add adjustable shelves. Scott installed the bars on the back wall for me and then you just add the adjustable pieces to hold the shelving.  And that is how it remained until now.

I started with the gray paisley cloth bins from Target. I use and prefer gold however I do love gray and gold together. For this project, I decided to go with gray.  Since this closet isn't very wide (around 3 feet if I recall), I used the 11 inch bins so I could use three across.  I needed to maximize storage so I used every square inch of this closet.
I purchased this home sign from Target because I liked it and wasn't sure where to use it until I did this project. I used industrial strength velcro to adhere the sign to the striped bin. That way, it brought in the gold that I used in the rest of the house.
This is the closest thing I have to a "before" picture.  I took a ton of pictures throughout this process however I accidently deleted all of the before pictures!!! I almost died! I had taken pictures of different bins and test photos as I went along and for some reason, I deleted the before pictures when I deleted the test photos! Anyway, the closet was okay, just not pretty. I had the laundry baskets for some twenty years and had kept them because you can't find baskets for normal size linen closets and these were perfect! They are 3/4 bushel baskets and most of the baskets they sell today are 1.5 bushel baskets. Go figure. I searched everywhere for some new baskets!
Here is a picture of the gold home sign.
Here is a picture without the sign. I actually like it both ways.  Let me know whether you like it with the home sign or prefer it without.


So let's go through the linen closet and check out the bins. I know for myself, I am nosy and always want to see what is in a bin or a box. It drives me a little crazy when people don't show you. It's kind of like knowing a secret, lol.  No secrets here!  In the top three bins, I put in toilet paper. I have 8 rolls in each bin for a total of 24 rolls of toilet paper.
The second row of bins are as follows: Bin #1 is for Matt's sheets. I keep the spare set in here. Bin #2 holds hair supplies-these are my electric rollers and Matt's hair cutting tools. Scott cuts Matt's hair so everything is stored in here. See photo.
Bin #3 on the second row holds cotton balls and my manicure and pedicure Better Beauty Cases. I got these cases from HSN and love them.  I bought them a few years ago and also use them in Matt's wheelchair for his supplies.
Here is a close up of the labels.
And here is how they are organized. You can click on the photo to enlarge it.  I do my own manicures and some pedicures. I still enjoy going for a pedicure now and then but I like having everything I need at home. I do all of Matt's manicures and pedicures though.
Next are the plastic bins. I used these years ago and then switched to the Better Beauty Cases for first aid and supplies however I didn't like getting the cases out if you need a band aid. My bathroom has a vanity but no medicine cabinet, just drawers in the vanity so I decided to go back to these plastic bins.  I added some silver glitter paper and put that inside the bins to make them sparkle! I added white labels to the front with black letters. I could have used clear label tape but  I need higher contrast labels now that I am older, even with my new lenses, lol.
I don't keep a lot of stuff. I only keep one of an item and typically one or possibly two back ups.  The plastic bins hold the following contents:
Bin #1 holds: Dental (toothpaste, floss, whitener, mouth guard), Nails (loofah gloves, nail brush and my nail polishing cuticle brush that I use to touch up any manicure mistakes) and Razors (Matt's shaver).
Bin #2 holds: Eye Care (lubricant drops-I use these after cataract surgery.), First Aid (bandaids, etc.) and Wraps (knee mostly).
Bin #3 holds: Deodorant, Q-tips and Soap (bar).

On the next shelf are my towels.  In the striped bin, I store washcloths on the right side and microfiber rags on the left side. I have travertine tile in the bathroom on the shower walls, floor and sink so every day after my shower, I use them to wipe down the shower walls. I try to keep everything close to where it is used, so this is the best place.

I purchased new towels for this project. That is mainly why I decided to do the makeover. It was time for new towels so I decided to just get new baskets and bins as well. I purchased four bath towels, eight hand towels and twelve wash cloths. It's just Matt and I and with limited storage, that meets our needs. 
The baskets were the hardest part of this project to find. I searched all over the internet for white baskets or heck any color baskets that were smaller.  These were the only ones that worked in terms of size. I could find smaller or larger baskets but these were just right. These are called "flexible" baskets and they are from Walmart. They are $4 a basket but I needed them to be sturdy so I doubled them up and actually think they look better. They are a nice crisp white and are perfect! I have used them for at least two months now and they are holding up fine. I was worried the might tear but they are as nice as the day I purchased them. I tried putting other labels (tags) on them but I liked the clean, white look of the baskets so I just added the following labels using label tape: Whites, Colors, Darks and Special Wash.
Another look at the whole closet.
Another look without the "home" sign.
And that's it! Lots of other projects going on but nothing ready to post. I did some small changes beneath the kitchen sink, I added a wall quote in the foyer, got some new furniture for the living room (end tables and coffee tables) and some drapes however I need to wait until next year to get a sofa and some accessories.  I am trying to be patient and content with what I have but it's hard sometimes!
And on a different note, I am excited because I will finally be getting my knees replaced this year. I had my appointment last week and I will get a robotic total knee replacement on my right knee in September. I need Scott to take care of Matt so I had to schedule it when he could get two weeks vacation. He will stay here for a month but works 12 hour days a few days a week so we will see how it goes. Not ideal for sure, but it is what it is. I am hoping to get my left knee done after that but the surgeon only does one knee at a time.  I have been reading about the robotic knee replacements and I am kind of excited. I think it will be great because it will enable me to get back to normal sooner.  Essentially, it allows for more precision, better outcomes and less cutting.  They do a CT scan ahead of time and map out the surgery. Then they make a 4 to 6 inch incision over the kneecap along with some smaller holes for the surgery. The robotics tell the surgeon where to cut leaving the good bone intact.  With traditional knee surgery, my understanding is that normally they cut the ACL and with the robotics, it is left intact.  Robotic technology is very expensive. The cast outlay is around $800k for a facility to purchase it.

 Regarding Matt, I just spoke with the doctor regarding a daytime portable oxygen concentrator.  We got a new oxygen concentrator a few weeks ago that goes up to 10 liters however I only had the portable rolling oxygen tanks if I took him out somewhere and those don't last very long and are difficult to maneuver with his wheelchair. This should make our life easier.
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