The Mobley Facelift Part 6

Would you believe I had zero decorations up in the boys' room until a few weeks ago? Honestly, I would just rather read to my kids than decorate their rooms, but I will admit the naked walls were kind of getting to me.

My mom had given me boxes and boxes of craft supplies, which included two matching shelves and two matching shelves with the pegs to hang things from. Perfect for twins.  I sanded them and stained them but couldn't figure out where to put them or what was going to go on them. They sat in the closet for, well, a LONGGGGG time. When I got the decorating itch, I had a sudden revelation that I could move the ABC cross stitch from the girls' room and put one shelf on either side with a blue stuffed animal on each. It turned out pretty cute, but I did have to use thumbtacs to get the animals to stay put.

Once we had the shelves with pegs up, I was at a loss of what to put on top of them. I wanted to put Matthew on one and Jonathan on another, but I didn't have anything that said Matthew or Jonathan.  So, until I come up with a plan for the name decorations, I put letter blocks with their first and middle initials.  (We didn't have enough M blocks for first, middle and last!)  And, by the way, the toy box is mine from when I was a tike. 

Sorry about the light.  I'm clearly still working on my photography skills.  This is the view as you enter their room from the door closest to the front of the house.

This is the view as you enter their room from the door closest to the back of the house.

This is the wall opposite the window where all the diaper changes happen.  Grandma Judy brought a pillow pet for each of the boys.  It was the perfect thing for on top of the diaper shelf.

Just a close-up of the cute stuffed animals and the cross stitch.  I had grand plans of making a cross stitch for each of the kids.  I've only completed one so far.  Maybe I'll complete the others before they leave home:)

Just a close up of the shelves with pegs.

The Mobley Facelift Part 5

Our master bedroom was already in pretty good shape, so the transformation is much less dramatic than other rooms.  However, I did replace our bedding with the bedding from the guest room upstairs when we removed that bed from the house (more about that amazing transformation later). As you already saw, I moved the rocking chair into the front room. I also reorganized closets to make room for a big box of wall decorations that are not currently on the wall and the laundry sorter. I also moved the clothes drying rack into the laundry room, a more appropriate spot anyways, and hung an over the door rack on David's closet for his running clothes. Here are some pictures of the mildly transformed master bedroom and bath.

The Mobley Facelift Part 4

The living room is probably the one room in our house that needed the most attention. We really live in our living room and it showed! There were toys and books all over as well as a school table and a desk that looked like it belonged in an office. The first thing I did was to move the children's bookshelves and school table upstairs. We had a hutch on top of the desk that had all sorts of things, like envelopes and colored paper and miscellaneous software, etc. I cleared all that stuff off and moved the hutch into the garage. I moved the manuals and reams of paper into the pantry and most of the other things into a filing cabinet in the laundry room.  The desk no longer screams, "I am an office!" This also left a lot of empty wall space, though, so I picked up a couple wall decorations from Bed, Bath and Beyond, which, by the way, is not the best place to shop with four kids five and under. 

I also picked up a super-long curtain rod from Home Depot (after discovering the one I bought at Wal-Mart was too short) and three sheer panels from Wal-Mart to highlight the beautiful windows we have looking into our backyard.  Incidentally, I made an attempt at some fancy action with a window scarf but quickly concluded that sort of thing requires much more flair than I have.

Lastly, I moved the big oak bookshelf from the front room into this room, resulting in a bookshelf on either side of the hallway. I also found this beautiful fan that one of David's students had given us and placed it on top of the bookshelf on a bookstand. 
 

This is the new view as you enter the living room from the hallway that leads to the bedrooms.

This is the view of the living room as you enter from the kitchen.

This is the view as you walk through the living room to go to the bedrooms or upstairs.

And you may be wondering where all the toys went???  They are hidden in the coffee table drawers!

The Mobley Facelift Part 3

If I had to choose a favorite room, it would definitely be the kitchen! Most of the facelift action for the kitchen took place behind closed doors. I removed the shelf paper from the cabinets and drawers because it was always moving around and really bothered me. I purged some things that I haven't used since we moved to this house and consolidated and reorganized others. This made space in the cabinets for the appliances that I don't use at least once a day, leaving only the bread machine, espresso machine, and hot water pot on the counters.  

This is the view as you enter the kitchen from the dining room.

This is the view as you enter the kitchen from the living room.

This is the view as you enter the kitchen from the front room.

Check out the organized pantry and the cutey looking for trouble!

The Mobley Facelift Part 2

Boy, something different on the wall and a pretty centerpiece changed the whole look and feel of our dining room! I found this beautiful quilt from my mother-in-law when I was reorganizing and thought it would surely brighten up a wall somewhere. I can't believe I had never even thought of hanging it on a wall.  Mind you, I had no idea how I could. I certainly didn't want to ruin it in any way. Thank goodness for google. Turns out you can use velcro (the adhesive kind not the stitch kind) to hang a quilt on a wall. Of course, it took a few tries to get it lined up correctly.  Then, I picked up some dried flowers in matching colors for the table and arranged them in this blue vase that was a wedding gift. I also made the table smaller because I was always being scrunched no matter where I stood or sat to feed the boys in their boosters.

We also have four white shelves in the dining room that previously held lots of pictures of the children. Here's the new look.

Three of the four shelves have teddy bears on them, which always makes me think of my mom's mom, who loved teddy bears.  The basket in this picture was a gift from David's parents and can fold down to function as a trivet.  It's really neat.

We love the Little House books and can never tire of reading them.  My mom found these Mary and Laura dolls and sent them to us.

More bears and a beautiful frame made by my artistic friend, Molly.  The M is made of dried flowers, which I believe she picked from our yard for this purpose!

And more bears.  The one on the left was actually my grandmother's!  She even sewed its dress and another one for Christmas.  David made the wood plaque for me as a Christmas surprise one year.  Previously, we had it above a door, but it was nearly impossible to read because it was too high.  I like its new location a lot more:)

And that concludes the tour of our newly reorganized/redecorated/transformed dining room!

The Mobley Face Lift

In case you haven't noticed, I've not been blogging as much lately. David and I have been really busy giving our home a face lift of sorts. I love organizing, but I find decorating challenging.  Nonetheless, I have found this face lift process enjoyable!  Tonight I'm going to start showing you our transformed house.  I'll begin with the front room. That's what we call it because it's at the front of the house...maybe family room would be a better name for it.

 Previously, the main attraction in this room was my elliptical machine, a.k.a. Mama's exerciser. It's found a new home upstairs.  We also had two bookshelves in this room, one found  a new home in the living room and the other upstairs with the exerciser.  

This is the view as you enter the house.  I think Sarah thought I was photographing her!

As you enter the house, this is the view to the right.  I found the table pictured on sale at Target and the wall hanging at Bed, Bath and Beyond.

And this is the view as you exit through the front door.  Previously the rocking chair was in our bedroom and the table was in the living room.

And check out this organized closet...usually, I dread opening it for fear of something falling on top of me!

The Armor of God

Yesterday while I was busy lowering crib mattresses so that Matthew and Jonathan could not engage in acrobatic theatrics during naptime, Mary went upstairs to work on something.  I had no idea what she was up to, but she came downstairs fully clad in the armor of God!  The picture doesn't do it justice, but she made the sword of the Spirit, the shield of faith and the belt of truth.  I love this kid!