Ramblings from the mind of a desperate home redecorator...

Bear with me people.  I've got a lot going on in my tiny mind, and it's driving me nuts.
For starters....

You know it's springtime when you have a bush trimmer on your coffee table.  I promise, I'm in the process of using it....this is the kind of thing that happens when you are dumb enough to buy a house sans garage.
I am obsessed with the idea of recovering my dining room chairs.  Actually, I am obsessed with the idea of getting rid of everything I have that is olive green, red and beige and replacing it all with turquoise, yellow and white.....maybe even orange!   Since I can't buy all new stuff (dang it!) I need to just tackle projects one at a time.
I love these fabrics, but can't see paying 34.99 a yard....especially since I would probably need two yards per chair, for eight chairs.  The sad thing is, 34.99 is on the LOW end.  Ugh. If anyone has ideas on where to buy amazing, super cheap fabric...please send those ideas my way!

                                   
In the meantime, I satisfy my urge to redecorate with smaller (more realistic) projects.  In Sissy's room was the rocking chair from hell...I may or may not have discussed this chair in the past....long story short:  I found this vintage chair when I was pregnant with the twins, and snapped it up for 25 bucks.  I went to the fabric store and bought LAVENDER fabric (Why?????? Shaking fists at sky!) and proceeded to pay 475 stinkin' bucks to have it recovered.  I could have bought a NEW pottery barn rocker for that much....but I didn't, so I was stuck with this rocker.  The fabric, although a designer name, was junk.  It started fraying and fading as soon as the chair got back from the upholsterer.  The "guts" of the chair were in TERRIBLE shape.  The rocking mechanism was totally jacked, and it tried to dump you on the floor every time you so much as reclined one degree.  Gone were my rockwellian visions of rocking my two infants in a precious, recovered vintage chair.  Every time I sat in that thing I cursed....so to put it mildly, I hate that chair.  I hate the chair so much I am not even posting a picture of it. In my utopian "I-have-all-the-money-in-the-world-to-decorate-my-house" universe, I would custom order a chair with amazingly chic/little girl appropriate fabric.  Since I live in the real world, with a husband who would throw me out on the street if I attempted half the stuff I want to try.....I came up with this:

A nine dollar papasan frame, (from Goodwill) painted crisp white, with a brand new papasan pad from Pier One that just happened to be on clearance AND matched Sissy's room.  Yippee!!  It looks adorable, and Sissy thinks she's a "little bird in a nest" (her words).  Now Bub wants a "bird's nest chair" too, but I don't have the heart to tell him we won't be having two papasan chairs in our house.  One is cute and kitschy...two is a 1968 hippie love shack.
I am in LOVE with these prints for Sissy's room....but what to do?  Order one and incorporate it into a wall of random stuff?  Order three and frame them all in a row?  Hmmm.......
I really, really, REALLY want to do this to Cale's room, but I think that might get me thrown out of my house, too. Gray and yellow?  Yes, please!!  Maybe in the next house.....I would definitely do TWO twin hanging beds, too....one for him, and one for a friend!
Also, I hate what I've got going on above my bed.
I don't hate the frames or arrangement as much as I dislike the picture quality of most of the images.  I took them WAY before I knew anything at all about a camera, so they irritate me.  I am thinking I would like something like this above the bed, especially since there is no window on that wall, and all those mirrors would have to create the illusion of light.  (or something)
Next on the list....the backsplash we are contemplating....

My taste is definitely veering more towards clean and contemporary lately, but the countertops and cabinets are more traditional...I am thinking this backsplash works because it's travertine-ish, matches the rest of the kitchen and is more interesting than the other ones I looked at because it's rectangular rather than square.
Finally, THIS makes me happy today....

I love looking at the little flowers in my windowsill that Cale brings me every day.  The kid can't pass by a dandelion without running to pick it for his mommy.  This emotion is almost sweet enough to make up for the fact that I need a new kitchen window OR (judging from this picture) I need to clean the one I have.