Carla from SassyDeZignz's Profile

In an old rental, my daughter's room had previously been occupied by a pair of little boys, who were Thomas the Train devotees. This would just not do, for my fashionista tween! Being a newly-single mom, in college & working, I blew off the conventional wisdom of prep work, & went at it with a 3 gal bucket of Kilz - 2 coats on the brick red trim.

I did a bit of minor repairs with wood putty, as we got to spots in need. Until the last window. There would have been more putty than wood around that window! We decided to call it a night & sleep on the decision of how to deal with it. I put the lid on the bucket, wrapped the drop cloth (aka sheet) up around & over the bucket, trays, etc., and we quit for dinner.

It took a whole weekend to decide to get the wood with my next paycheck & my dad would help me rebuild the window frame. Five days into the wait for payday, my tweenie-bopper decided that the pile of stuff needed to move away from the window, & gave the edge of the sheet a hearty jerk. The lid was not quite firmly enough tapped onto the can for such rough handling... about 2 1/2 gallons of Kilz soaked into & through the new pink carpet I'd been 'protecting' by wrapping it up. Kilz. Covers. Everything.

I'm really loving this eclectic, eccentric, boho, warm, cozy look! (pinned it w the same note). Often, something like this just seems to make sense, yet I've never actually done it, because it felt like there was some unwritten law about it, lol. Seeing this feels like licensing a happy rebellion against 'The Man'! But, I think MY man will either a - not care, or b - roll his eyes (again), or C - love it as much as I do. I'm thinking 'c', if only because anarchy is his idea of utopia. ;)

Having done both for years at a time, I know that country does not equal privacy OR quiet. Not by a long shot. The country's 'fresh air' just means smelling manure instead of exhaust. Well, most of the time. In some seasons, it is a 'lovely' combination of manure and exhaust. There are many myths about the picturesque life in the country. Life is not safer in the country. Lol, but it isn't all 'Deliverance', either. The country would be my choice, but I'd like to be able to get to a city or big town in a reasonable time, too.

I love the look, but like the others, it just would not work in our home. We have a house bunny, kids, & the hubs &I have VERY different organizational ideas, lol. I could however, see a section or two of floor to ceiling open shelves for canisters, small appliances & cookbooks, as long ass everything else was enclosed.

She's in Hawaii. She lives nature & sophisticated style. She's starting fresh. In her shoes, I would go outside, & wander around for a while, enjoying the scenery, & taking notes of the colors that catch my eye, take pics, & make prints, then prime the walls to get rid of that awful color so it doesn't mess with the next step. Then I'd play around with them, in the bedroom, through the changes in natural lighting, & pic my favorites from that. Take those faves & go to the paint store & find matching chips or have custom blends, take them home, paint patches on all the walls, see how I feel about them, again street a week or two. Seems like a long process, but its better than wasting money & time, discovering after a little while that you hate it, then have to start over.

@Mark - ROFL!!! And why wouldn't you expect those non-survivors to respond? This whole post, with all the comments is a riot! The extremes always crack me up, because I just don't have the inclination (much less the energy to spare) to keep up with the extremes. Did my kids wear elbow & keypads & helmets? You bet, they did. At least until I got tired of replacing them because the kids 'lost' them.

Stairs? Yup. With gates even, at least until they were able to maneuver them. Interestingly, they were all able, in their own way, before their 2nd birthdays, after which, I was more likely to fall on them, than the kids, & sober, at that.

Our teenage daughters love when I layer frozen fruits & vanilla yogurt in pint size jars, in the fridge, & snack size bags of home made granola on the counter. They grab one of each and a spoon, & they're good to go. One eats it at home, before she leaves, the other eats it during her first class (teacher-approved, because she does it, too!). They both sprinkle the granola on top of the yogurt, first, for the bit of crunchy texture. Hubby &I are both home-based, so we are lucky enough to eat more leisurely, but wee all drink from the same pot of coffee, set up the night before.

These look good. I love cooking by method & ratios, rather than recipe, so that's right up my alley, too. Another way to up the protein content, for those who want it, would be to make them into small balls & roll them in chopped nuts. Dates, dried pineapple & macadamia, rolled in more macadamia sounds like af relish, candy-like treat & would be a great way to sneak some extra nutritional value and calories into the diets of picky, underweight kids, too. Or onto the dessert table at potlucks, where people are expecting to find empty calorie sweet stuff - what a great way to alleviate some of the desert guilt that accompanies those empty calorie treats!

I love it! Going from owner to renter is hard on the psyche. You go from free reign to a very tight reign. Renting has it's perks, though: major repairs? Call the landlord! No furnaces to repair or replace, no mowing or shoveling, no painting the exterior, etc. On the other hand, you have little to no freedom to personalize.

Thank you for the reminder that there really are some smallish things we can do to bring a bit of originality and homeyness (lol) to our rented spaces!

This is awesome! Thank you for one of the best Mondays, EVAH! Great way to start the week, & I'll definitely be sharing this one.