Progress... but not where I wanted it...

I made mountains of progress today but not on my OAMC plan, it was in the playroom. You can ACTUALLY SEE THE FLOOR! >>>GASP<<< !

The formal dining room is still in a shambles. Seriously. It's a wreck.

The playroom, however, is looking much better! I did find one small cause for a hiccup in my plan for reorganization. You see, before the big migration of stuff, the playroom was in a bedroom upstairs that did NOT have a chair rail encircling the room so having media storage mounted on the wall was the perfect choice. I just chose to remove it from the wall and move it downstairs. Sounds like a great idea, right? Wrong. Since the chair rail is around the room which now houses the playroom, we'd have to raise the base of the media storage wall mount up about 2 1/2 feet. This clearly means that there is no way that I, nor anyone else in this house would be able to reach anything near the top. Furthermore, since I'm anal retentive and alphabetize everything, it's clear that anyone desiring a movie would thus miss out on the good ones like... The Adventures of Milo and Otis, Alice in Wonderland, The Aristocats, and Beauty and the Beast, among others. We can't have that so now we will have to figure out some type of media storage for the playroom.

Honestly, though, I think that this may be a blessing in disguise because it will keep the visual clutter still to a minimum. Maybe some type of media cabinet can be installed ON THE WALL?! Hmm..... I'll have to be checking things out! That's for sure. Any ideas?

I also started piecing together my family room. It wasn't painted in full, just the trim, mantle, built ins and molding. Oh yeah, the ceiling was painted too but we didn't really have to move everything around in this room like the others, however, reassembling the mantle has proven to be quite a pain in the glutes! You see, I'm not the type of person who is able to accessorize her person, much less, her abode.

Those great home party jewelry shows everyone has? Yeah, don't invite me. I won't come. Why? Because I have NO IDEA HOW TO ACCESSORIZE! When I had a wedding ring (before it went missing/lost/stolen/whatever) I wore that. Earrings? Diamond studs. Watch? Sometimes, but generally I rely on my Blackberry. Necklace? Generally speaking, never. You see? I'm a minimalist. I feel fake wearing all that stuff and I feel like YOU can tell that I feel fake so I just don't bother.



**edited to include a photo of my blingage that I miss so very much....

Therefore, just as with the jewelry and how I only wore what really meant something to me, I struggle with decorating my home. So, bring it back to my mantle. I don't like having STUFF in my house just to have STUFF. I want it to be something that means something to me, not just something I purchase to fill a space. I have a TON of great accessories that I have purchased that really are just "accessories" that really mean nothing and I guess that's why I really, really struggle with decorating because they mean nothing so, for me, it's just a pain to even go through any motion trying to organize them into anything "nice" because they mean nothing. Does that make any sense whatsoever?

So, I'm calling out the big dogs (my cousin, the decorating diva!) I'm hoping she can come look through my "stuff" and piece together something fantastic. I just want it to look great (OTHER than at Christmas when I really KNOW it does because I rock the Christmas decorations!) Anyone want to see a picture and you can give me ideas? I'm open for any and all constructive criticism!

HOWEVER, progress IS progress. The playroom is just about back to where it was. Which means that after our next run to IKEA to purchase the entertainment/storage system that we're going to assemble (SIDEBAR: Isn't it funny how I say we're as if I'm actually going to do any labor on this project whatsoever? Yeah, I thought so too!) and at that time I will need to remove ALL the storage solutions in there and find them NEW homes (oh the joy of it all). I will be taking the entertainment center (once we paint it a chocolate brown) to the scrapbook room. I actually can't WAIT for that piece! Otherwise, it's lots and lots of plastic storage bins and shelves and such that will certainly find their homes in the garage and the attic. :) Joy!

OH, and I have only about two loads of laundry left to do and I CAN SEE THE FLOOR BENEATH THE PILES! That, in and of itself, is a HUGE feat in my book.

Tomorrow, I'm going to Costco and to a couple of grocery stores to hit up the meat sales and it will begin my huge cooking endeavor. I will post the menu and recipes as I go so that everyone has access to what all I've done, am doing and hope to do.

I think right now I'm going to go up to the baby's room and finish what I can there. And, yeah, he's still called "the baby" because we still haven't figured out a name for him. Here's my list, what do you think?

Barret
Benjamin (family name)
Brady
Cabe (my grandmother's maiden name)
Caleb
Cash
Charles/Charlie (this is a family name)
Christian
Cole
Cooper
Dierks (Andy hates this name)
Dylan
Jacob
Jett
Landry
Levi
Liam (Andy hates this name)
Max (Josh and Drew both love this name)
Miles
Nicholas
Nolan
Oliver
Reagan
Ripley
Ryan
Sean
Trey (Andy likes this -- means the third... seems like a cop out to me)
Westin
Zane

So, those are what we're tossing around. We'll see how it goes. I guess we can't leave the hospital until we have a name so at least sometime next month, we'll have one picked out! Ha!