no headboard needed!

I typically follow the established rules of bedroom furniture placement.

Rule #1: Always place the bed on the wall opposite of the door. Logic is that you walk into the bedroom and your focal point is your lovely bed.

Rule #2: Don't place your bed in front of a window. (I think this may be more of a mystical rule. Like bad ju-ju may come in your window at night and give you strange dreams...)

Rule #3: You must have a headboard, whether it be part of your bed or some sort of artistic piece that acts as a headboard.

Don't ask me who made up these rules. What I've found in decorating my home is that some rules are meant to be broken!

For example: We have no headboard and our platform bed is placed directly in front of the main window in our bedroom. Which happens to be a gorgeous tri-window with an amazing view of the vibrant red and orange fall leaves on the old trees on our street.

So it is not a headboard. Or a piece of art. But it is rather artistic.

Oh, and I do have strange dreams at times...but I don't blame the window.

{Probably is the glass of wine and plate of pasta I ate before going to bed!}

What is outside your bedroom window?

G

sepia-toned november

Yes, mamas and papas,

all the leaves are brown, now, and the sky is gray.

I did go for a walk on a winter's day.

{Yeah, I know, it is not technically winter yet. Just play along.}

So I bathed these shots taken at my parents farm in sepia.

Winter beauty in brown - enjoy!

G

kitchen bliss: french country-style

I grew up in an old farmhouse at the dead-end of a gravel road in southeast Minnesota.

I loved living in the country, spending my days in the fresh air (well, sometimes you got a whiff of manure from the neighboring pig farm) and our home was always a place of comfort and fond memories.

This weekend I travelled home to visit my parents, brothers, and our other family that still live in my hometown. I got to experience a pleasant surprise -- seeing the final result of my mother's long-awaited "new" kitchen! They completely gutted their kitchen, entryway, and guest bath and the result is a transformation worthy of a kitchen design magazine.

This little blog will have to do. :)

I unfortunately have no "before" pics, but let me paint a picture: dark, old cabinetry, light blue laminate floors, laminate counters, dark mauve wallpaper...a green plastic toilet seat!!!!!

Enough said.

My mother is a saint and deserved this kitchen. She also has very good taste and did a fabulous design job!

These white pumpkins were a gift from yours truly several years ago...don't they look perfect in the new kitchen?

Here is the entryway. Luuuuuuurve that gorgeous storage bench!

She used bronze light fixtures and hardware, which is a stunning contrast to the white french country cabinetry and creamy tile backsplash.

My mama has a pot-filler! I am so proud! :o)

They have the largest island I have ever seen in a kitchen -- and the granite is stunning, with a river of blue running through it.

Here is my mom...thankfully she has no idea how to use the internet, so there is no way she can get mad at me for putting her picture on my blog...just kidding! I warned her...sort of. :) Isn't she sweet?

I love my mom!

And my dad, of course. It is his kitchen, too. In theory. :)

G

Thirty before 30 #9: Paint my Ikea dresser

Recently I told you the tale of my Ikea dresser. The full version is here, but the short version is that I bought an Ikea Hemnes faux-oak dresser back in my college days {assembled with love} but for the past few years it has sat in my bedroom looking completely out-of-place. The color just didn't match the rest of our modern brown-black furniture that we purchased when we bought our current home.

A re-do was in order!

Because this has been a project that has been nagging at me for what feels like an eternity I decided this was something I had to put on my "Thirty Before 30" list...just to give myself a little, um, pressure to do the dang thing.

So I did!

I bought a quart of black paint (Cracked Pepper, Valspar) and scoured the internet for advice on painting Ikea furniture. In the end, I kind of just, well, painted it! All in one fell swoop, with the help of several cans of Redbull {elixer of the gods.}

Two coats of paint that made the dresser match my platform bed perfectly!

So here is my dresser {before} the transformation:

And here is the dresser {after} - at long last!

I absolutely love the result, and am glad to have one thing checked off my Thirty Before 30 list -- hurrah!

Hope everyone is having a beautiful Friday. I'll be checking in from my trip back home to my parent's farm in Minnesota later today -- to share Mom's kitchen re-design. It is beyond gorgeous, I promise.

Much love from MN!

G

{playing dress-up}

Is it weird that I enjoy Halloween more as an adult than I did as a kid?

Maybe it's the fact that it is not often as adults we get to play dress-up and pretend we are something completely different, perhaps be a little more crazy than we typically are. There is something so very exciting about a night where pretty much anything goes. I am a fairly conservative dresser...but Halloween I definitely like to get a little sassy. Can you guess from this odd-angled shot what I went as?

Hubby and I went for the first time to the neighborhood Halloween bash. Most of the guests were folks we had never met. It was hilarious getting to know the "characters" in our neighborhood! 

The table decor was fabulously freaky...

...and we danced, laughed, and made merry 'til the wee hours of morning.

Me and Popeye.

:o)

Hope you had a fun, spooky, delicious Halloween!

G

{tale of an ikea dresser}

I bought my Ikea Hemnes 6-drawer dresser back in my college days, when I was living in little studio apartments, working 50 hrs a week and going to school full-time. I needed something cute and cheap. {Ironically, for as thrifty as I was, I also splurged on a Pottery Barn couch for $1400. Which we still have. And I still love.}

I assembled the dresser all by myself, with love and care. You should have seen me beaming with pride when it was complete. {ps: I have a weird fancy for assembling furniture.} The "faux-oak" color matched with my Pier1 living room coffee/end table {also still have} and my cheap Target kitchen table {again, still have, though used now as the kiddo table brought out only at holidays.}

Now my bedroom, shared with amazing hubby, looks like this:

We still have Ikea furniture, but it is the more modern-looking Malm platform bed with nightstands. The old reliable dresser just doesn't match! So, blog friends, I painted it! Believe me, I was nervous as you are reading this, thinking, "Ikea stuff seems cheap, the wood has a faux finish on it that does not seem paintable...seems like a bad idea, G! Why not just buy a new dresser at Ikea -- they are cheap!" Uh, yeah, cheaper than PB, but I decided I'd rather pay $15 for paint than $180 for a new dresser. Sooooo....

...stay tuned for the for the finished product - I will post the "after" pics very soon. You might be surprised at this re-do!

{I know, I know...I'm a total tease!}

Has anyone else dared to paint Ikea furniture???? I'd love to hear!

G

{oh brother!} happy birthday!

This is my big brother. It is his birthday today. I cannot believe he is 36! This makes me feel a little old...

Josh is GREAT. Although I didn't really think so when we were younger and he would "tickle torture" me, lock me in trunks, and yell at me for the TV being too loud early on Saturday mornings when he was a teenager and trying to sleep...

But now I think he is GREAT. :)

He is extremely smart, hard working, policeman, husband, and also father to two beautiful kiddos...

Aren't they a cute family?

{this pic is minus lovely Ella - I couldn't find one with all of the whole fam}

So just wanted to take a moment to introduce the blogosphere to one member of my family.

(Plus, I watched Supertroopers for the first time recently...and it reminded me of him. Or at least his uniform. Ha!)

Love you lots, Josh!

G