NEW PAIR OF WINGS

Hello friends!  Its finally reveal week and the Finale for the Fall 2017 One Room Challenge! My friends please stop by Linda’s blog callingithome.com!  There really is so much delightful beauty and decor inspiration! Thank you so much Linda and House Beautiful for opening up your ORC and letting us guest participants join in and share in the fun too!

I’m late to post as usual, but I have a good excuse!  Well, it’s real life anyway, but first I really want to share my bedroom makeover with y’all, so let’s start with some pretty pictures!

If I make the bed Charlie comes and I didn’t have the heart to move him, so he gets to be part of the makeover too and really, he makes everything look a little more cozy don’t you think!?

The whole project started with finding the beautiful blue and ivory floral toile wallpaper.  I also decided to make the move into the larger bedroom, and by hanging the wallpaper horizontally just below the ceiling, adding the simple new trim and fresh white paint it makes the room look and feel so much bigger, taller, brighter and prettier!

Originally the makeover plan was to make a headboard cover from pink chenille fabric, but I decided on a softer more neutral feel instead and went with this pretty soft blue satin backed crepe fabric that I discovered squirreled away in one of my fabric bins. The pretty comforter I found on clearance for $23.99, but I was only able to get one matching sham, so I’m mixing some old white and cream shams that I already had.  They fit right in with the white and ivory mixes that we already have going on in the room, and I’m loving the more collected, non matchy feel the mixing is bringing to my bedroom.

I’ve been loving the three pillow trend that I keep seeing this year, so I used the pink chenille fabric to make 3 pillows and brought in a pretty white floral pillow that I made earlier this year.

The ceiling fan is a necessity in our hot California summers, and the new crystal light cover with its blingy touches adds a little glam and sparkle!

My old, but newly covered blue velvet bench looks so pretty, especially with the pink rugs.  And once again I love the unmatched patterned pink rugs with their touches of blue, mixed with my old super shaggy ivory rug. Sooo much yummy texture and I love the bohemian feel they add!

Almost all the accessories were thrifted years ago. My old blue and white ceramic pieces, pink and white and gold accents have taken on a different glow and they look like they were chosen especially for this new space!

We didn’t quite finish everything on our list, and the decor plan ebbed and flowed alot with our real life, but I’m so happy with how my bedroom makeover has come this far and I know it’ll only get prettier and more finished looking with the additional projects getting completed too.

So now for spilling my real life beans.  Earlier in the challenge mum and I decided that we’d like to make a move, and we’ve been house hunting almost every week. Driving 4 hours away, looking in an area that’s a little more affordable and we found a few homes that we really liked.  We made two offers on two separate homes, one was rejected right away due to our contingency of needing to sell our home, the second offer was countered and we made a deal for an accepted offer!

So we called a realtor here at home and put our house on the market, at the same time scheduling the inspections for the house we were buying.  We’ve had many showings on our home this past week and 3 offers have been submitted so far, but the inspection report came through on the home we were buying and there was a lot of deferred maintenance which we knew about and lots to be updated, which we also knew about….what we weren’t expecting was termites, 2 different kinds and the subterranean kind, and the bug guys weren’t sure they could get them with extermination…which meant the possibility of termites forever!  Sooooo we cancelled our offer and went back on the house hunt.

Yesterday, the day after the inspection report and the day of the ORC reveal (yes bad timing!), mum and I traveled again and relooked at several houses that we had seen before and several new finds, but none of them meet our wants and needs or feels like the right one for us, so I think as of this moment of writing, that we’ve decided to take our home off the market and just be patient until the right one comes along or mum wins the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes whichever comes first.

Not moving wasn’t an easy decision to come to, and both mum and I feel a sense of relief, but also some sadness. We do feel so bad for the persons that are interested in buying our home, but the only other options we have right now, is a home we’re not really in love with, or homelessness, neither of which we can afford to do.

And I have faith that this is the way God has directed us to go.  We prayed and tried hard to listen through every step of the process and we have felt his help in how everything turned out, and in helping us decide to stay for now. At one point it felt like a release, but I think it was actually an embrace and I feel so very grateful and loved that he’s looking out for us.

Now that we’ve decided to stay, I’ll be hanging up my mirrors and art, and putting up my pretty ivory drapes and white sheers, and mum and I plan to hang the old chippy glass sliding doors over the closet.  I’m really looking forward to seeing the room with them all hung and installed!

Mum and I are also talking about making some changes in our kitchen and doing some general updating throughout the house, so lots more diy adventures to come!

In thinking deeply about everything I think part of our sadness is because next week will be the 6th anniversary of my poppa’s passing and mum and I have been feeling that old seasonal grief lately, which might be part of our looking to make a move too.  We still love my father so much and though we know there will be the time we’ll be with him again, it doesn’t stop the pain of missing him in our everyday life now.

We know there are so many of you dear friends that have lost loved ones in death and our hearts and prayers go out to you.  This time of year can be so hard on our hearts missing the ones that make our families complete.  May our Father comfort you and bring you joy and peace!

Thank you so much for stopping by and following along as mum and I adventure our way through life and diy!

Take care of yourselves dear ones, and as poppa would say “Have fun and be good!”

Much love from Mum and me! oxo