Apple Green Envy and a Spot of Aqualisciousness

Red....you used to be my favorite.  And before you blue.

But now....it's all about the aqua, and apple green.

You might remember how I spent my last Black Friday at an estate sale and how I literally....and I do mean literally....dreamed about all the aqua milk glass items at this sale.  Really.  I kept waking up the night before the sale worried there wouldn't be any aqualisciousness (yep - made that word up - maybe I can get it added to the OED next year) left before I got there.

I ended up keeping most of the pieces I bought, but the other day, I put this up in my etsy store.

Isn't it beautiful?  LURVE that color!  (I added the cloche just for fun.)

So...where is this all going Sweet Bee?

C'mon - buzz along with me - this is why Worker Bee calls me Sweet Bee - I'm always buzzing about something.   I'll get to the honey, don't you worry.

I just recently pinned this little collection of sweet colors

source

and I suddenly realized my living room is going in this exact same direction!

Love, love, love my new living room rug!

It's an indoor/outdoor rug from Home Decorator's Collection.

Read about it in HGTV magazine and I just knew I had to have it.

I changed the pillows on these wicker chairs to this apple green velvet.  Got them at World Market.

 Love the tall glass lantern (already had the blue and white candle  - got it at Target years ago) which was a great price at World Market!  Yes, I am totally obsessed with World Market.  Scary obsessed.  You can ask Worker Bee - or on second thought you better not.

Any advice here?  Baby Bee and I were doing manicures in the living room and some polish remover got on our coffee table.  Yikes!  It removed some finish.  How can I fix this?  (I won't tell you how much Worker Bee has buzzed and buzzed about us ruining the coffee table, but I bet you can guess how many times - uh yeah - it happens every time he sees it.)  

 Now I think I need to paint my red heart shaped table.  Any suggestions?  I want to use red as a tiny little accent now.  (I know, I know, how can I leave red?  It was just time dear ones, it was just time.)

So....lots of little projects to go.

Big estate sale this weekend to head out to and I am really hoping it is cool enough to paint some furniture.  I just can't find the energy to paint when it's over 100º.  

Thanks for buzzing by!

I am also dreaming of finding some sort of buffet and doing this with the TV in our living room...

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TV on the wall and the globe collection on the buffet.

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Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........

And I'm linking up to My Romantic Home Show and Tell!

One Little Change at Sweet Bee Cottage

Much of my time lately has been spent helping my mom organize her new little cottage - although there does seem to be a lot of moving boxes back and forth.  Worker Bee has been wonderful to my mom and has even gone over there and helped her when I didn't have time.

Well,  lucky me, because Sewing Bee has moved to a much smaller home, she is getting rid of some of her furniture and Sweet Bee Cottage has been the lucky recipient of these pieces.  Although....truth be told....this doesn't involve a piece from my mom, but because of her this table was liberated from our bedroom.

We have just had a giant furniture shuffle!  I love it!

before

These chairs were originally at the kitchen table, but when I got Mom's dining room table, I moved my dining room chairs to the kitchen.

So the old kitchen chairs went to the living room.  And....they temporarily had these boxes as a "side table."

after - still need to accesorize

This sweet wicker table had been in the sunroom, then was my nightstand (and oh my it was waaaaaay too small for a nightstand - I was always knocking things off of it in the middle of the night - but it looked great and I was all about the cute for awhile),

this is where the table used to live

and now I've put it between these two chairs you see as you enter our house.  The chairs and table are all from Pottery Barn.  I love them and I wish they would bring them back!

Other changes are in the works......wait till you see what I found for a corner in my hallway!  Let's just say there will be quite a bit of painting furniture in my future.  Oh boy!!!

Aren't you delighted with little changes?  And I just love how fresh something looks when you just move it to a new spot.  Cheapest decorating around!  Gotta' love that!

Thanks so much for buzzing in!

The Big Reveal or How a Little Paint Can Make a Big Difference

If you're here looking for a dramatic change......

well......

I don't think you'll find it here.

However.....

if you want to see how just a few gallons of paint and a little editing of furniture and accessories can really change the look of a room, then this post's for you!

Before......

Yellow walls.....

 Look how intense that yellow looks.  It did look a bit better in person, but......

it didn't make me smile anymore.  It felt really dated.

We painted the walls yellow before we added the skylight.

Dark green paint on the library bookcases.......

It felt cozy, but it was dark.  Really dark.

We moved some furniture too.  You can see that in a bit.

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So last week I convinced Worker Bee it was time.  Time to move out all those books, stuff, and furniture.

And this is the result......

C'mon in!

And no, that's not your imagination - our ceilings are blue!   That part's not new.

I love how much more open it feels now.

Love these frames!  But I haven't updated them since Baby Bee was about two years old.  I told her it was time to put in some new pictures and she protested.  I have a sentimental little Baby Bee.

Do you see the fish bowl?

That's Greg, Marcia, Peter, Jan, Bobby, and Cindy.

They are some goldfish that Baby Bee won at the school carnival 

(drum roll please) 

2 1/2 years ago!  

Do we do anything special to keep them alive?

Absolutely NOT!

They are just in one of those huge glass general store type jars.  

They really want to live.  They are survivors. Worker Bee even brought one of them back from the brink.

We call him the Fish Whisperer.

As you continue in we had this open space and it just didn't look quite right. 

Sewing Bee suggested filling it in with the two chairs.  She was right.  (But don't tell her I said that - I don't want it to go to her head.) 

I think I need to look for a little table - some sort of pedestal - to go between the two chairs.  For now, the red boxes will do.  (Yep, that's another "That's Good Enough.")

 Look to your right and there's our piano......

 and game cabinet.  These two guys switched places.  We're still getting used to it, but I think they'll stay exactly where they are. 

 And remember these great aqua floral pictures that I couldn't decide if I should keep?  Well they now have a permanent home.  I love how they look with the red candlesticks, the little aqua bird and the red gingham lined basket that holds some of our music. (Baby Bee and I both play the piano and Worker Bee plays the guitar.)

 And how absolutely perfectly they all go with this adorable summer time banner that Joyce from Scrap for Joy made for a swap we were in.  Don't you love it?  She is uber-talented!  I need to show you some of the other things she made. 

Now.....come sit down - let's chat for a bit.  Let me go and make you an iced latte......

Ahhhh.......better.  Love those vanilla iced lattes.

We didn't change a lot in this area.  We did shift the entertainment armoire and bookcases towards the sunroom window.  This really opened up the area between the piano and the loveseat. 

It still feels warm and cozy to me, but just so much brighter!

Now look at the library!  The only change here was that we repainted the back of the bookcases.  From the original dark green to this gorgeous blue. 

Yes, you can look a little closer.

The blue brightens it up so much.

These READ letters are one of my favorite things.  I picked them up on vacation in Wisconsin - Fond du Lac to be precise - although the vacation was actually at Green Lake.  We were in a Target and I found these.  Worker Bee said, "C'mon.  We can get that back home.  Why do you want to haul that halfway across the country?"  Well I persisted and it flew back with us to California and good thing because (I bet you can guess this one) I never ever found these letters at any Target in my part of California.  Lesson learned - READ is always worth hauling from WI to CA.

Up on top?  Those are the Grandma Bowls.  You can read more about them here.

C'mon - sit down.  Finish that latte now that you've seen most of the changes.  You know how it is - there will be a little bit of tweaking and changes until I'm completely happy with it.   

And now you know why I haven't posted much lately.  Been a bit busy taking my whole living room apart and then putting it back together!  

Well thank you so much for buzzing by!  

Can you believe how much brighter and lighter it all looks now?

I knew it would be better, but I had no idea it would be SO MUCH better.

And if you're curious....the walls are painted Antique White (Behr from Home Depot) and the back of the bookcases are Sunken Pool (Martha Stewart from Home Depot).

And please don't forget to come back for my 500 follower giveaway.  Apparently I'm still being a tease about it......

Yep!  That's another sneak peek of the giveaway!  Yes, I am a terrible tease.  But won't you forgive me?

With lots of honey,

I'm linking this post up to

Met Monday
at Between Naps on the Porch
and

at The House in the Roses.

Thank you ladies for hosting such fun linky parties!