Cottage Blue Designs

Here I Go Again......

2013-05-15T16:46:00.001-04:00

Hi friends,
Thanks for joining me today. Can you tell how much I've enjoyed being home lately getting my bucket filled decorating, organizing, and crafting? I even managed to get in some much needed heavy duty spring cleaning- I cloroxed our baseboards and floorboards yesterday on our main level. I had to stop after a little while because I was getting loopy off of the Clorox fumes! What a difference it makes though! I've got to make sure I do that job more than every two years!!!! Seriously!

We were hosting our last small group bible study last night at our house so I decided it was time to rearrange our furniture in there. You know it's funny, some people (like my mom) arrange their furniture in a room and will keep it that way as long as they live in that home. I am not saying that there is one thing wrong with that. Nope! Nothing wrong with that at all! But, that my friends, is not me. Nope! No way! I feel so refreshed when I spice it up. So, let's take a walk down memory lane, over the last two years that we've lived in our current home in the outskirts of Raleigh, North Carolina and see how we've arranged the furniture in that room:

Before

That takes us to today. I wanted to focus on the flow being better in the room. I wanted to be able to walk easily through the room as this is the room we usually walk through to get to the stairs to go upstairs. See, what you think now......(of course, it'll probably be changed by tomorrow!).......

Now

Oops! I already added a new piece from the living room:

Thanks again for stopping by my little decorating blog today friends. Just to share, I updated my 'books and reading' tab and my 'joy rising' tab, check them out if you're interested.

A couple of new little tweaks.....

Artwork by Bryce, I love the bright colors she used, don't you?-

Daily inspiration on our chalkboard. I'm still thinking a lot about gratitude lately:

Back to life at the Brew Crew household. Since my two kids have had birthdays recently, they both got new bikes. So, we've been taking daily afternoon bike rides. It's hilarious to me how different my two kids are. One child has to always be in the front of the bike ride parade, leading the way. He is my daredevil, racing off. The other child will get off of her bike if there is any kind of incline or decline, as she isn't quite certain that her brakes will work effectively, so she will walk her bike to an appropriately flat surface then get on it again. Needless to say, the speed demon and I end up waiting for the slow child at each and every stop sign. They are who they are. Gotta love their little spirits!!!!!

You guessed it right.....the daredevil-

Take care friends. I hope you're having a wonderfully blessed week.
Happy decorating & living,
Megan

A few little updates

2013-05-14T18:00:00.000-04:00

HI friends,
Boy, do I feel blessed this week! I've had the last two weeks off of work and it's been so lovely to be at home getting some of those 'to do' things off of my list. Somehow, I haven't crossed off everything from my 'to do' list. On some of these beautiful days, I'd rather sit on the deck in an Adirondack chair with the sun on my face and the breeze across my legs listening to the birds reading rather than tackle some of those jobs. I have not cleaned the baseboards and the hardwood floors yet- somehow those less glamorous jobs don't seem as exciting. I have gathered up items from the attic for Goodwill and done some good cleaning.

I wanted to share two fun creative projects that I had a great time working on last week. I dusted off my middle school sewing skills and designed a pillow. I also spiced up our eat in kitchen and added a few new items.

First, in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, last week I used some of my very basic sewing skills- thank you Home Economics Middle School teachers for teaching me to sew. I had some plain white pillows that came with our two Crate and Barrell slipcovered sofas that we bought on sale two years ago when we moved from Virginia to North Carolina. I decided it would be fun to add some decorative elements to the plain white sofa pillows. I checked out the Pottery Barn website and found my inspiration (I kinda have a thing for starfish and pillows):

I used the left over tan duck fabric from the ugly bench in our bedroom that I covered recently to try to improve it's appearance. You can read about the bench project here:
http://cottagebluedesigns.blogspot.com/2013/05/newest-project-redo-ugly-bench.html

First, I made a template on paper of the starfish cutout and traced it with pencil on the tan duck fabric. Then I sewed it on the pillows. I kept one starfish pillow plain and added buttons and beads to the other one. Which one do you like best (plain one on the left, snazzy one on the right):

I also wanted to share with you how I spiced up our eat-in kitchen. I added two green slipcovers to our chairs (found on sale at Pier One) and a new green pottery lamp found in my favorite home décor store in downtown Columbia, South Carolina (I also found the driftwood bowl at this new favorite store of mine that is on the buffet). By the way, sorry that these pictures are so dark. The paint color on the walls/ceiling is not conducive for picture taking. We hope to change it to a soft cool gray/blue sometime in the near future and a white ceiling:

Here's where I have been spending quite a bit of time lately outside reading:

Friends, another reason that I am feeling so blessed is that this weekend my parents came to visit to celebrate Mother's Day. My mom has been battling cancer for the past year and she now has six months off of chemo because her cancer is shrinking- Praise God! Here are some pictures from the weekend. By the way, we were also celebrating my husband and daughter's joint birthday a week early. I treated my mom to a night out- we went out to eat and saw a musical together. She and my dad look great, don't they?

Here we are before church on Mother's Day:

Thanks so much for joining me today friends! I had fun sharing Brew Crew updates with you. I hope you are feeling blessed this week. I think I'm feeling especially full of gratitude because I have been reading a book on gratitude which is helping me to focus on all of life's blessings.

Take care.

Happy decorating & living,

Megan

Newest project: Redo ugly bench

2013-05-04T18:09:00.005-04:00

Hi friends,
How are you? How have you been? I did a lot of traveling with work in April which was all good and it definitely filled my professional bucket but I am now happy as a clam to be home for the next few weeks! I have a long list (literally!) of spring cleaning (wash baseboards, wash white slipcovers from sofas, and a lot more), spring organizing (put away winter clothes and take piles of things in attic to local Goodwill), and some family fun (the beach in SC and Asheville, NC). I've been wanting to tackle some of these items for the last couple of weeks but needed a good amount of time at home to get started.

I just tackled a decorating project this afternoon in about thirty minutes that I wanted to share with you.

My husband and I have been wanting a pretty bench for the end of our bed for a long time. I love this style of bench from Ballard Designs but the price tag is entirely not feasible for an item like a bench that is really just for fun:

We have looked and looked and looked for a bedroom bench for well over a year in magazines, catalogues, and stores. Nothing that we liked that was affordable and reasonable.

We had an old World Market bench from our former dinning room table that our kids used to sit at when eating meals when they were toddlers (love benches for toddlers!) and then we left it outside on our deck for a while with the table and it got ruined on top (super warped!). Here is the old warped bench in our bedroom:

I decided that if we couldn't afford the kind of bench we wanted, I'd just take what we had and improve it as best I could. So off to the local fabric store I headed. I bought 3 yards of beige duck fabric at just $10.99 a yard and some foam. My husband loaded up his staple gun for me and showed me how to use it and off I went. First I covered the old warpy bench with the foam:

Then, I covered it with the burlap colored duck fabric and stapled away. Here's the finished project:

Since our bedroom is also our cat Millie's domain, she had to check it out too. I wonder if she approves?:

I'm definitely not in love with it as much as how awesome the expensive Ballard Designs bench is. But, I think I improved it's appearance. I am considering painting the wood on the legs of the bench to give it a more rustic antique appearance (like the Ballard Designs bench) but I am not sure yet. What do you think?

Here are some other shots of our bedroom (still in progress as always):

It felt really good to have a little time to work on a decorating project today! I will definitely need to carve out a little more time to spice up the Brewer household and share it with you before I head back on the road for work.

Thanks so much for joining me today-
Happy decorating to you-
Megan

Happy Spring!

2013-04-01T15:30:00.000-04:00

Hi friends,
Happy spring to you! Is your area behaving and providing you with lovely springtime weather? The Brew Crew rascals are on spring break right now so I am home with them hanging out. I had a few free moments to myself (thanks to recent birthday toys for Brayden and a neighborhood friend for Bryce) so I thought I'd update you on what's been happening lately in our household design wise.

We have now officially been in our (not so) new home near Raleigh, North Carolina for just about two years! We have done a lot to make it our own home but of course, there's still stuff left to do. There always will be, right? We haven't regretted making the move to this warmer, slower paced life one little bit and have loved stealing away to the beach in just a few hours (vs. the 7-8 hour drive it used to take from Northern Virginia).

Welcome friends, step inside and let me give you a decorating update:

The winter pansies are still holding their own. I'll be ready to get newer fresher spring flowers soon.

This sweet glass lamp with geometric shade was a cheap find at Target. I needed a small lamp for this table. I have added the mercury glass collection here lately as well as the starfish tile that Steve and I purchased on our honeymoon at St. John's British Virgin Island.

This new artwork I added around the holidays to display Christmas cards. It's simply two cabinet doors to a dvd case we have in our bonus room with clothespins hot glued onto it. I like to change out the pictures and quotes/scriptures/cards on it to spice it up.

Haven't changed much in the entryway. Still have the basket holding umbrellas.

I do dream of painting this room and the adjoining rooms (and ceiling) a light blueish green but that is one big job!

I've changed the furniture arrangement in the family room. Having the sofas set up this way allows us to look out the windows more. One draw back is that it's not as easy to walk through the family room but I do like having the windows less obstructed as I love light!

We do have a lot of seating arrangements right now in the family room because we are about to host our small group bible study friends over at our house so I needed about 14 seats (still need to pull in some chairs from the kitchen table).

You can barely see the oyster shell mirror I made to the left of the door.

The previous owners left these three floating shelves from Ikea for us. I've been re-arranging/ staging them for the past two years. I think I've finally found an arrangement that I like (for now!): small green glass lamp, beachy artwork, cool white coral pieces, and blue and green glass pieces.

People do think I'm crazy to have white slipcovered sofas with one black dog and two messy kids but I gotta tell you, it's so easy to throw the slipcovers in the wash. I still love them! The great thing about neutral sofas is that you can spice it up and get new pillows frequently.

Not much has changed on the screened in porch except the new fresh green chevron pillows. Maybe someday I'll add an outdoor rug. Looking forward to adding some palm trees out there soon and some summer flowers.

I still love the glass ceiling light fixture that we added over the table. I do want to add two industrial style ceiling lamps over the bar area eventually.

I do dream of painting the kitchen cabinets a creamy white and changing the backsplash to a fun glass tile but that's a super big job and an expensive one to boot! So I guess I can live with the brown for a while.

I am considering add one pottery lamp with a burlap lampshade here instead of the two lamps.

I must admit I am in love with this new driftwood bowl that I found at a cool import antique store in Columbia, South Carolina while on a business trip. As my brother pointed out, if I get tried of it, I'll have kindle wood available for the fireplace (too bad it's gas!).

This little brown geometric rug replaced the worn out one we had (cheap Target find).

Haven't done much in the living room. But it has turned into my favorite room to curl up on the sofa with a great book and take a nap. I might want to paint this room a softer paler color in the future.

The cheap white rug from Ikea that I painted in this room is getting stains on it so I am thinking of getting a newer, nicer and larger rug for this room in the near future.

I am still in love with the basket light hanging from the ceiling found on discount at Ikea (we swapped it out from the large heavy bronze one that was once here).

My home office (we gave up our dining room so I could have a work space here on the main floor) used to be a dark brown color (including the ceiling). My handy husband painted it a soft pale blue for me.

I made this artwork out of three dishtowels I bought at the aquarium in Monterey, California.

I made the blue striped curtains by painting wide blue stripes on an inexpensive white curtain. I found the two bright blue furniture pieces at the local Goodwill for $16 (they were brown).

My home office is also where the kids do their homework and art projects.

I made the artwork on the left hand side and my husband got the sweet pair of seahorses for me for a gift.

Friends,

Thanks so much for joining me today as I shared my updates in our home. I'll try to get my act together and go upstairs and share (meaning clean and straighten upstairs!). I hope you're having a wonderful spring.

Happy spring and decorating,

Megan

Holiday Tea Party

2013-01-24T09:22:00.000-05:00

Hi friends,
Thanks for joining me today. How is the New Year going for you so far? Did you make New Year's resolutions? If so, how are they going? I don't really make New Year's resolutions. I did make a goal for myself this year and my husband I made a goal together. My goal is to work on finding balance. I am ALWAYS working on this goal. Sometimes I achieve this goal for a brief moment in time then things get crazy again. Finding time to get outside and exercise, read and have quiet time, be a mom, wife, sister, daughter, worker, and basically get it all done as stresslessly as humanly possible maybe even having some joy and fun in there too. My husband and I are working on building community for ourselves. Since moving to North Carolina almost two years ago we are wanting to feel more connected to our neighbors. We joined a small community group with other couples which meets weekly and I am loving it! Lots of community building happening.

Last Monday, Martin Luther King Jr day, was a holiday for kids- no school. My daughter, Bryce, had the idea to have a tea party for her neighbors (more community building plus a reason to dress up and eat sugar). We are very fortunate to have four houses in a row on our street of families with kids about our kids' ages. Invitations were sent and my kids got to work helping prepare the food. They, literally, could NOT wait for the party to start.

Preparations:

Decorations:

The menu:

Strawberries dipped in whipped cream and rolled in candy sprinkles and carrots:

'Ladybug' cookies (you have to use your imagination):

'Ants on a log' (celery, cream cheese, and raisins) and grapes:

Lots and lots of candy:

Party favors included a tiara, bracelets, and a goody bag of candy to take home. Bryce designed the personalized placemats herself for each guest:

Now, let the party begin (Brayden joined us too, after all, the party was at his house and there were lots of sweets involved):

After all that sugar, the party headed outside to burn off some of that energy:

Here's to a great weekend for you. Take care my friends.
Megan

Happy New Year from the Brew Crew!

2012-12-30T17:22:00.000-05:00

Hi friends,
Happy New Year! Do you have some fun plans for New Year's? If so, please share them with me so I can live vicariously through you! I remember the days when we used to go dancing or dress up in black tie digs or even have a really nice dinner out. Ah! Those where the days! These days my honey and I are happy campers snug as a bug in a rug in our bed by 9pm reading our books on our Kindle Fires. That is happiness! We're old, huh? Oh well. It had to happen. I can't even remember the last time I stayed up until midnight. It just doesn't happen over here at the Brew Crew. 6am comes way too early.

I wanted to share with you that today after church I finished taking down all of the Christmas decorations and my honey took all of the boxes, bags, and tree up to the attic. I was kind of depressed about having all of the decorations put away- honestly, the house looked so stark and plain. So I decided that this year, we would decorate for winter! Why not?

Mostly I reused snowflake decorations from our Christmas tree. Away went all of the red and green and welcome to the blue, white, and silver. See what you think:

I also added some super cheap scrapbook paper, snowflake stickers, and ribbons that I purchased at the Craft Store yesterday for less than ten dollars to add to our 'winter motif':

I also decided to add some of our silver pieces to our winter wonderland (I love mercury glass, don't you?):

Here is our family's new year's resolution (believe me, it's needed by all of us!):

I still couldn't bear to take down the Christmas cards:

I spiced up my home office with snowflake lights that my honey just got on sale (really for outside use for next year):

Here's the living room (I couldn't bear to take down the garland and it does have snowflakes on it so I think it qualifies as winter decorating):

Here's my honey cooking dinner for us:

Happy New Year friends!
May your year be filled with love, laughter, and light!
Megan

Winter Decorations

2012-12-29T15:26:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year friends!
I hope you had a wonderfully joyous Christmas season with your family and friends!
We had a great holiday celebrating with family. Santa was very kind to the Brewers.

We were all under the weather with nasty colds/coughs, all except my husband Steve. He must have one amazing immune system! But we're all better now and I have started taking down the Christmas decorations. I always get kinda depressed when I take down all of the decorations because the house looks so stark.

So this year, I had a brainstorm. I decided to decorate for winter! Why not? I ventured out of the house today, the first time in days, I spent two days on the couch in my pjs watching HGTV nonstop, and made it to the local craft store. I only spent a very small amount and bought scrapbook paper, snowflake stickers, and blue and white ribbon- just dollars. I can't wait to share with you how I've decorated for winter.....one word.....SNOWFLAKES!

I promise to do another blog posting soon and share lots of pictures of my winter decorating. I need to get all of the Christmas decorations back into their boxes and back up into the attic soon so I can take some pictures for you.

Happy New Year!!!!
What kinds of plans do you have?
Do you do New Year's resolutions? I do. I'll share mine soon- they're the exact same resolutions as last year and the year before that and the year before that.

Happy decorating & living,
Megan

Merry Christmas from the Brewers

2012-12-19T10:42:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas friends!

I have been thinking of you all this holiday season and hoping you are well. I have been busy working at my job in education but wanted to take a few minutes to visit with you and share how we decorated for the holidays in our home.

Caution: I went a little crazy with tons of pictures added to this blog update!

First off, I have officially lost my mind this year. I made two Christmas cards, yes, two! Have you ever done this? Or am I the only crazy one? I just couldn't decide which one to go with so I ordered both. Now, I didn't mail friends and family two Christmas cards from our family. That would really be crazy if I did that, right?????

Here they are, which one do you like best?:

1. Our favorite place in the world: the Beach-

2. The kids in their Christmas outfits (you don't want to know how I was screaming at them to smile for the shots, you've never done that, right?)-

I love pouring over decorating magazines to get inspired for decorating for Christmas. I am always awed by their cool color choices. Then I look at our collection of Christmas decorations, all green and red, and I think, 'How can I not use the stuff I already have?' Maybe someday I'll really spice it up and go with a cool blue and green Christmas motif or something different but for now I'll drag all of our favorite oldie but goodies green and red decor.

This year I was inspired by several magazines to add some homemade Christmas decorating touches to our home that I'll share with you below.

Entry Way: I reused old white cabinet doors as a Christmas card hanger. I took the cabinet doors off a DVD storage piece we have up in the bonus room and attached clothespins with hot glue to hold Christmas cards.

Family Room: I was inspired by a decorating magazine to make Christmas banners with colorful Christmas scrapbook paper that I cut into triangles and attached to red ribbon.

Eat-in Kitchen: I liked the Christmas paper banner so much I continued it in here too (plus it was super easy and cheap to make and fun too!).

Living Room: I was inspired by another decorating magazine to add garland to the archway (reused all of the materials by the way).

This is where the kids and I read the Christmas books that they open each night- (I blogged about this idea that I got from a friend last year, you can read about it here:)

http://cottagebluedesigns.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-tradition.html

My Home Office: Another idea that I got from a magazine this season was to make these handmade peace, joy, and love signs. All I needed was Christmas scrapbook paper, 3 small wooden hoops, red ribbon, and a few stickers.

My wish for each and every one of you this Christmas season is to be filled with the spirit. May you feel the love of Christ and share that love with everyone around you.

God bless you all-

Megan

Fabulous Fall Break

2012-10-08T08:11:00.006-04:00

Hi friends,
Isn't fall in the Eastern United States a wonderful time to visit the beach? I'm thinking I'm very grateful right now for my daughter's year round school schedule (she started school on July 30th and has three weeks off for fall break). This is what The Brew Crew has been up to on the lovely unpopulated coast of South Carolina:

We had quite an exciting day here at the beach recently. In all of my forty something years of coming to this exact beach with my parents, grandparents, friends, and family, that has never happened.

Bryce, my 6 year old daughter, and I were leisurely playing on a raft about waist deep in the ocean on a lazy warm sunny afternooon. We'd been out in the water for about 15 minutes or so and I noticed people on the beach waving their arms and yelling. I felt in a daze and I remember thinking, "That is weird. Why are they doing that?" Then something clicked in my brain. SHARK! I grabbed Bryce's small frame and threw her on the raft. I grabbed the edge of the raft and ran as quickly as I could through the water. Once we got to the shore a guy on the beach told me that he'd been fishing nearby and watching a 5 foot shark swim along the shoreline. I was quite shaken up but very curious too. I asked him how he could tell the difference between a shark and a dolphin because we see dolphins jumping out of the water daily, usually in groups. He said that the shark has the back fin and the tail fin and that the shark swims through the water, side to side, versus the dolphin that jumps up and down. He pointed out the shark to me- it was definitely different looking than a dolphin! It was most likely a sand shark which are usually harmless. I did go inside the beach house later and google sand shark incidents at this beach and surrounding beaches and there have been 10 incidents (usually bites to the legs/feet) this past summer which was high.

Sand Sharks:

Understandably, I was quite shaken up by our shark incident! That night while trying to fall asleep, I couldn't stop myself from thinking of other endings to the story! Ah! I wasn't planning on going back into the water. But, the next day, with the sun shinning, all seemed right in the world again. So, we did head back into the water but definitely cautiously, and only about up to our knees at the deepest. Plus, I stayed close to my kids and was looking out for sharks in the water.

I hope you're having a fabulous fall yourself! Where ever you are, whatever you're doing.
Today is rainy and chilly at the beach, so we'll be spending the day inside. Wish us luck that we don't kill each other! :)
Happy living,
Megan

Hanging out with My Mom

2012-09-25T19:10:00.001-04:00

Hi friends,
Warning: This blog post today has absolutely nothing in the least bit to do with decorating. Even though my last blog post said that I was probably done blogging, Losing My Steam, I decided to pop back in today because I see that many of you keep visiting my blog each and every day. So, what the heck, I'll share what's been going on in my life.

This week I made the 4 1/2 hour car ride from our home south of Raleigh, North Carolina to my parent's home in Fairfax, Virginia. My dad has gone up to Maine for a convention that he organizes every two years for his past work organization. This will be the first time that my mom hasn't joined him. I came to stay with my mom to 'mom sit': basically hang out with her, take her to doctor's appointments, and keep her company. I was actually really looking forward to this time together.

Here is the top reason that I am loving my week hanging out with my mom:

1. A bed to my own beautiful self: No cats, no dogs, no kids! Alleulia! Just me, two pillows, a sheet and blanket, and a comfy bed. The family bed is not my thing, nor is it my husband's idea of a restful night's sleep. Our kids have their own bedrooms and beds. We like them to sleep in their own beds. Stay in there you rascals! The night before I came to visit my mom I had a four year old, well, truth be told, my four year, climb into my bed and attempt to sleep with my husband and I. His version of sleeping includes sleeping horizontally across our bed between the two of us which really means that he's kicking one of us while he's tossing and turning and head butting the other one of us. Needless to say, we get that knucklehead back into his bed as soon as he falls asleep. This happens about once a week, one or the other of our children say they're scared or couldn't sleep and try to find refuge in our bed. What this means for us is intterupted sleep. Notice, I didn't mention that I mind sleeping with my husband, with our king size bed, he has his half, I have mine. Sleep is soooo underrated I think. I love it! I am going to bed early here at my mom's every night and plan on sleeping in (anything past 6am is beautiful!). No alarm clock jarring me awake to make kids' breakfasts and rush them out of the house to school. (I really do like being a mom and love my two kids....really! It doesn't sound like it, does it? Honestly, I do.)

Get in your own bed, son!

Maybe I'll pop back in and share some more later friends. Thanks for joining me today.

We have some very exciting news in our family that we are waiting to happen today that I'll share soon.

Hope you're having a joy filled day. If not, find something that brings you joy and do it! Now!

May you have a restful night's sleep! Sweet dreams my friends-
Megan

Losing My Steam

2012-09-07T13:22:00.000-04:00

Hi friends,
I want to thank you for joining me today. Honestly, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for joining me every time that you do. It means so much to me when you email me with ideas, questions, and input. I love hearing from you and learning all about you. I have made several friends from my blog which has been such a blessing. I starting blogging about a year and a half ago when my family (handy husband Steve, Bryce- 6 year old daughter, and Brayden- 4 year old son) moved from Northern Virginia to a quieter, little slower paced life near Raleigh, North Carolina. I went from working full time in the math office for the 12th largest school system in the USA to being a part-time traveling math educational consultant. I found some time on my hands and a house that was twice as big as our previous home that needed to be decorated. I had so much fun sharing with you my ideas about how to decorate it- sharing some mistakes (not really mistakes because you learn from it and change it out if it doesn't work for you) and thinkings along the way. It's definitely still a work in progress, heck, we know it'll always be a work in progress! But, I love it that way! I love spicing it up- rearranging furniture, buying some new pillows to add a pop of color to the room, or grabbing some new flowers or item to add interest.

If you are a regular visitor to my little decorating blog you might have noticed that my postings have been happening a lot less frequently lately. This little blog started out as a place for me to be creative and share a little bit about myself. I have never made any money from it (my choice) or tried to turn it into a business. It was just a place for this mom of two young ones to have something of her own to fill her bucket. Well, I wanted to share with you that lately I've felt uninspired to blog. I haven't felt moved to do any new postings. I think I might be losing my steam. I guess I could have just stopped blogging but I thought I owed it to those of you that continue to stop by daily or weekly to let you know what's up. I truly appreciate your coming along my decorating journey with you. It's been fun. I may feel inspired in a day or a week or a month to do another blog posting or I may not. All I know for sure is that right now, it's not there for me.

I wish you a wonderful week and weekend. I hope that find love with your families and friends. I wish you joy, passion, and fullfillment in all that you do.

Here's a few of my favorite pinterest pictures to share with you before I sign off today:

Happy decorating & living,
Megan
meganlawbrewer@yahoo.com

Spicing Up the Family Room

2012-08-26T18:28:00.001-04:00

Hi friends,
You might have seen my last post about how I spiced up our living room. The living room spicage (is that a word? no!) came about because of this spicage. I decided to move the sofas around (mostly to make myself clean behind them (Hey! That's where that missing playing card went plus too many legos to mention!). I brought this small chair and a half (below on the left) together with his partner sofa. The small chair and a half had been hanging out in the living room next door. I thought these two friends that we purchased over a year ago when we moved in probably wanted to finally be together in the same room. My husband and I have already discovered that we LOVE the fact that the gray corduroy ottoman is the same size as the chair and a half. Perfect for cuddling! Not to mention that the exact moment we tried out the cuddling on the chair and a half together both kids decided that they had to snuggle in with us and we all fit on it (that's pretty amazing!).

Thanks so much for joining me today.
Happy decorating & living,
Megan
meganlawbrewer@yahoo.com

Spicing It Up in the Living Room

2012-08-23T19:37:00.000-04:00

Hi friends,
Thanks for joining me today. I hope you're having a good week and are going to have an awesome weekend.

Okay, this is sad and I have a problem. I spiced up the living room this week and before I even had a chance to share the changes with you, I have already changed it again. What can I say? I've had both kids back in school full-time and I've had the week off of work so I've had time on my hands to play decorating. I am not going to lie, having both kids back in school full-time has been soooo lovely. I've felt guilty how absolutely lovely it has been. I've gone for walks every day and have been trying out my new 'prayer chair' (I can't wait to share that with you). It's been heaven!

Back to decorating.....the living room.....a week ago this is what we were working with:

1.

I decided to try out the old wicker chair arms from the eat-in kitchen in the living room and took out the small cabinet. Here's where we were earlier this week:

2.

Then today happened. I decided to spice up the family room (which I need to share with you) and that spicing up led to this spicing up. I needed this old Pottery Barn white slipcovered sofa to go somewhere (it got kicked out of the family room)- I am waffling on Craig's Listing the old sofa or trying to find a spot for it upstairs in the bonus room. See what you think.....(don't look too closely at the slipcover on the sofa- it's time to throw it in the wash)-

3.

I have to admit that at first I thought, 'NO WAY' about putting this large old sofa in this small room (we actually tried it in there when we moved in) but after peeking at it over the last couple of hours now I am warming up to the idea. I'm not saying that it might not still find it's way upstairs in the bonus room or find itself another home from a Craig's List friend. We'll see old sofa...you're old but you're comfy.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Happy decorating & living,
Megan
meganlawbrewer@yahoo.com

New Temporary Artwork

2012-08-22T20:04:00.000-04:00

Hi friends,
Thanks for stopping by today. I wanted to share with you an idea I had for artwork for my home office. I had a hole on one portion of a wall in my home office that needed something- some type of artwork. I have my eye on a 'Cottage Rules' sign on www.etsy.com but I didn't want to spend the money on it right now. So, instead I went up to our attic and walked around to see what inspiration I could find.

I found these two white glass cabinet doors that go to a piece in our Bonus Room that holds DVDs (we took the doors off the cabinet so that the kids could easily get to their DVDs). I thought maybe I could use the doors to display pictures:

I was also thinking that I could display postcards or special cards. Perhaps I could even make this piece into a 'vision or dream board'. The possibilities are endless and all I need to do when I tire of the items on it are swap them out. I simply hot glued clothespins onto it to hold what I wanted to display.

I am pretty sure this piece won't stay in this space forever (nothing stays forever anywhere in my house!) but until I get something better, I think it'll do for now.

What do you think?

Thanks for joining me today. I hope you're having a great week. I need to update my BOOKS tab soon and share what I actually ended up reading this summer. How about you? What were some of your summer reads?

Happy decorating & living,

Megan

meganlawbrewer@yahoo.com

$16 Storage is My Kinda Storage

2012-08-21T18:48:00.005-04:00

Hi friends,
Thanks for joining me today. This is my little friend that I picked up at the local Goodwill for $16 last week (for both pieces). Score!

I needed a place for additional storage for my Home Office and especially for a spot for my new printer. Our old printer in my husband's home office finally died so I was the happy receiver of our new fully working printer.

Before:

After (I separated them for the space, it seems to work):

Here they are in their new home, My Home Office:

All I did to transform these $16 beauties was: (1) Apply Spray Paint Primer, (2) Apply Spray Paint- Aqua Satin, and (3) Apply Spray Paint Sealer. Done, done, done. Easy scheemzie! The two blue and green paisley fabric covered bins were recycled from our hall closet organizational system.

How observant are you? Did you notice something else new in my home office? Stop back by in a day or so and I'll explain what it is.

Thanks again for joining me today.
Happy decorating & living-
Megan
meganlawbrewer@yahoo.com

New Stuff Coming

2012-08-19T20:10:00.003-04:00

Stay Tuned Friends-
New blog material coming soon.
This super ugly guy that I just picked up at my local Goodwill for $16 just got a make-over. This is the before:

I'll get a new post on here soon, I promise.

We're home from the beach and both kids are now in school all day. Can I get an AMEN? Ahhhhh!

Happy decorating & living to you-

Megan

meganlawbrewer@yahoo.com

Mom's Trays

2012-08-12T20:24:00.000-04:00

Hi friends,
Greetings from the beach in South Carolina where we are celebrating the last few moments of summer. I thought I'd just pop in today to share how I've incorporated two of my mom's old floral painted trays with you in our family room and eat-in kitchen. They make me so happy when I see them, remembering them in my parent's house. I smile!

Here's the blue one:

And the black one:

Thanks for joining me today friends. I hope you have a super week.
Happy decorating & living,
Megan
meganlawbrewer@yahoo.com

Updated: Master Bedroom

2012-08-09T08:23:00.000-04:00

Hi friends,
Thanks so much for joining me today. Greetings from the beach in South Carolina where I'm having a great time and taking a break from my little decorating blog. Here are my son and I out to dinner one night (sorry the picture isn't so good- taken from my iphone) (I really just wanted to show off my new JCrew Outlet dress to be perfectly honest!):

As you can probably tell, my son is at times a little shy and you definitely would not describe him as a risk taker (which as his mom, is honestly perfectly fine with me!). Anyway, I showed him how to boogie board once and this little joker spent the next two hours boogie boarding his heart out and occasionally wiping out! It was awesome! It didn't hurt that there were three bigger kids nearby boogie boarding too.

Okay, okay, enough of our family vacation. Let's get on with some decoarting. I have been saving Pottery Barn gift cards for months to save up to purchase curtains for our master bedroom. You might have remembered that I purchased some Pottery Barn curtains at Christmas time with gift cards but they were horribly wrong in there! (At Christmas and my birthday, all I really want is stuff to decorate the house with! And maybe a massage and some new clothes! What can I say? I am easy to buy for! :))

Anyway, these curtains are definitely working for my husband and I. They add so much warmth to the mostly white room and a touch of luxury. I also found two inexpensive bamboo circle mirrors that play off of the bamboo shades in the room to flank the bed. See what you think:

Before:

Now:

You might remember that I made the two shell mirrors in the room. I also covered the lampshade by our bed with fabric I liked. I made the ottoman slipcover as well. I did pay a professional to cover the little chair (that I got at a thrift store for $35) with a white cotton washable slipcover. All of the furniture in the room (minus the bed) is from thrift stores.

I am still looking for a long bench to add to the end of the bed to put pillows on during the night and my husband wants to add an antique fireplace mantle to the room. It's always a 'work in progress' as is every room in our house.

Thanks again for joining me today friends. I hope you're having a great week. I may pop in a time or two again during my 'blog break' before I head back to reality.

Take care.

Happy decorating & living-

Megan

meganlawbrewer@yahoo.com

Not 'Man's Cave' but 'Megan's Cave'

2012-08-04T16:46:00.003-04:00

Hi friends,

How are you? How is your summer winding down? We've been pretty busy over at The Brew Crew household. I know that I told you that I was taking a break from blogging for a month but I just had to drop back in this week for a post or two and share.

Some updates from our house: Bryce started first grade last week (year round school), I was able to steal away to Northern Virginia to visit my parents as my mom is dealing with Ovarian cancer and all of the side effects of chemotherapy- we were able to celebrate my birthday as well as my pops, Brayden doesn't start preschool for another couple of weeks so he and I have been best buds, and all of the rest of life stuff. Luckily for me I've had a nice break from my consulting job in education as I've been able to focus on all of this other stuff! Though work is about to pick back up with more traveling next month.

Anyway, I just had to take a break from my 'blog break' and share my updated home office with you. As you might remember, we forfeited having a dining room so that I could have a room for myself- a home office where I can work on my laptop at the craft table, pull out my sewing machine for craft projects, and much much more. This is one of my favorite spaces in our house because it's so cheery and happy. I also love it because it's location is right off of the kitchen and family room on the first floor so I can keep an eye on the kids while I'm doing my own thing.

For my birthday, my sweet husband remembered my recent seahorse fascination and picked up these two sweet wooden blue painted seahorses from etsy.com for this space:

Here is a run down of some things you might remember about this space:

-DIY painted blue stripes on curtains
-DIY painted blue and green strips on white rug
-DIY four sea creatures pieces of artwork flanking the large window (used paper placemats and mod podge)
-Basket overhead light fixture found in the clearance section at Ikea
-2 bar stools covered with my green and blue fabric
-Spindle shelf unit painted fresh coat of white paint (used to be in my parent's basement from the 1970s ugly brown fake wood)
-Lots of storage
-Freshly painted 'Beach House' Valspar walls and ceiling

I think my 'Megan's Cave' is just about finished. Whew! It was fun decorating it just the way I wanted with inexpensive DIY projects (painting the curtains with big beautiful wide blue stripes, painting the white rug with green and blue stripes, painting the furniture, and doing some art projects). I am considering adding some additional storage at some point in the future but for right now, it's a wrap.

Before:

After:

Thanks so much for stopping by my little decorating blog today friends. I think I'll lift my 'blog break' one more time soon to share what's been going on in our master bedroom- I have some fun changes to share with you. I hope you all are doing well.

Happy decorating & living,
Megan
meganlawbrewer@yahoo.com

Summer Break

2012-07-22T12:06:00.003-04:00

Hi friends,
I will be off my blog for about a month taking a summer break. It's time for me to get some rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation!

I hope you are having some fun this summer.
Happy decorating & living,
Megan
meganlawbrewer@yahoo.com

Sweet Jewelry Stand

2012-07-17T15:17:00.000-04:00

Hi friends,
I hope your week is going well. The heat has returned to the Raleigh, North Carolina, USA area. It was even too hot to go to the pool today- can you imagine? Too hot to go to the pool! I took the kids to a cheap kids' movie then we played at home with lots of cool air conditioning blowing in the house.

I wanted to share a real find that I found a few weeks ago when I was in Fairfax, Virginia visiting my folks. I just happened to find this two tiered stand on the sale table of a local boutique just miles from my parent's house. I thought I could use it display jewerly. Let's see, what else do you think it could be used for? It was less than $20. Steal!

What do you think it could be used for?

Happy decorating & living,

Megan

meganlawbrewer@yahoo.com

Bedroom Fireplace?

2012-07-16T07:58:00.000-04:00

Hi friends,
Thanks for joining me today. I hope you had a good weekend.

While my husband and I snuck away recently to Pinehurst we stumbled across an antique store that was selling old rustic fireplaces with mantles. My husband's creative gears started going. He wants to add a rustic fireplace to our bedroom. It would be non-working of course. We definitely have the space for it. Our bedroom is quite large and we're having a time at figuring how to fill it. If it was really big I'd go for a sitting area with two chairs but it's not that big- we have one comfortable chair in there with an ottoman and small round table.

Here's the last posting I did on our bedroom last year:
http://cottagebluedesigns.blogspot.com/2011/10/updated-master-bedroom.html

I will be adding curtains soon which will definitely add to the room- I've been saving up Pottery Barn gift cards (those curtains aren't cheap!). I am also looking for two round mirrors to flank our bed similar to the round mirror in the picture below.

Here are some inspiration fireplace in bedroom pictures to think about (of course, they are working fireplaces which we won't have):

I am warming up to the idea of a fireplace in our room with a mantle. The thing that's holding me back is how permanent it will be. But my husband is super excited about the idea and he usually has great ideas. So what the heck! Let's do it!

Happy decorating & living,
Megan
meganlawbrewer@yahoo.com

Hooked on Seahorses

2012-07-13T08:03:00.000-04:00

Hi friends,
When I returned from my two weeks visiting my parents in Virginia recently my sweet husband had a little gift bag for me. That's really awesome, isn't it? I guess he knew how tough the visit was and wanted to let me know he was thinking about me. Anyway, one of the items that he got me was 3 metal seahorse hooks. He knows that I have a thing for seahorses right now.

Oh look, Millie the cat, is hanging out with me today. She's definitely 'my cat' and she missed me a lot during the past two weeks. She won't let me out of her sight!

Thanks for joining me today. I hope you're having a great week.
Happy decorating & living,
Megan
meganlawbrewer@yahoo.com

Mod Podge Artwork

2012-07-11T20:54:00.000-04:00

Hi friends,
Yesterday I teased you by sharing that I recently created a craft project for myself out of these products:

-Coastal Blue & Green Paper Placemats (purchased in Pinehurst, NC this weekend)
-Mod Podge
-sponge brushes
-two 12 X 12 artist canvases
-two 6 X 6 artist canvases
-scissors
-two images from the internet printed on my computer (octopus and seahorse)

Well, I've been at it again, adding to my favorite space in our whole house, my home office. See if you can spot the 4 new pieces of artwork that I made today:

Did you find the 4 framed coastal creatures that I added to each side of the large window in my home office?

Thanks so much for joining me today friends. I hope you're having a terrific week. I've been full time mommy this week with our two kids: no summer camp, no school, just us three musketeers this week and next! I'll share some of what we're been up to in a blog soon.

Happy decorating & living,
Megan
meganlawbrewer@yahoo.com

Coastal Paper Placemats

2012-07-10T20:27:00.000-04:00

Hi friends,
Thanks for joining me today. Did you happen to get a chance to catch my recent post about Steve and I stealing away to Pinehurst on the spur of the moment, thanks to his mom? Here it is in case you missed it:
http://cottagebluedesigns.blogspot.com/2012/07/pinehurst.html

I mentioned in that Pinehurst post about picking up one item. I found these cute cheap paper placemats that feature blue and green (my favorite colors!) coastal creatures.

Here they are:

What I really love about these inexpensive paper placemats is that the kids can draw on them- don't focus on their coloring (they were exhausted from playing outside so they just scribbled)-

Now we're ready to eat:

Here's the table before we ate again nice and neat and clean:

Here's our chalkboard in our kitchen with my latest favorite scripture which says it all:

That is about it for me today friends. Thanks for joining me. I can't wait to share with you tomorrow what craft project I just did with these coastal paper placemats.

Here's a sneak peek:

Happy decorating & living,
Megan
meganlawbrewer@yahoo.com