PAINTED YELLOW SIDE TABLE

 

I am so happy we are emerging from the GRAY of winter. Signs of spring color and warmth are popping up everywhere! Thinking about the happiness spring brings made me think about how we can bring a little happiness into our homes with color, too.

 

When my friend Susannah built her house, she was concerned that she had picked out too much gray. I LOVE the gray and I love even more she made sure her house didn't have the feeling of "boring old gray" at all! She did it by adding pops of color. I adore this cute little side table she refinished in a bright yellow and put it in her living room. It is one of my favorite pieces in her beautiful new house:

 

 



 

There are many easy ways to paint furniture, but this is how Susannah did it:

She lightly sanded away the clear finish by hand to make sure the paint would stick and not flake off. and off the remaining dust. Then, she sprayed on a coat of spray paint primer, let it dry, and applied a couple coats of yellow spray paint. That was it! I love the new life breathed into this vintage old table. Are you brave enough to try a pops of color in your home?



If you are wondering what your current home value is, what homes around you are selling for, or what homes are available, I would love to get that information for you, just let me know!

LEGO STORAGE AND DISPLAY

The Oscars are over this year and I'm already looking ahead to winners for next year. Do you think anything slated to come out the rest of 2014 rivals The LEGO Movie for Best Animated Film? I don't. But then, I'm also a huge closet LEGO Nerd. LEGOs are kind of, well, AWESOME!

And here is where I admit the epitome of my LEGO nerdiness: I collect LEGO minifigures.

And so do my kids because they, too, are awesome.

We lost a LOT of "minifigs" over the first couple of series because we didn't have anywhere to keep them. All those little pieces in the hands of first and second graders -- it was a losing battle. And heartbreaking. I finally came up with my own solution to saving and better enjoying our collections. All it took was a few IKEA frames, the inside white paper flipped so no print showed, square LEGO bricks (2 x 2), and hot glue. (DEFINITELY not Krazy glue. And we're gluing the display pieces, not the people, people. The people are FREE. We would have learned nothing from that movie.)

 Here is what my son's collection looks like:

And here is what my daughter's collection looks like, proving LEGOs belong in even super-girly rooms:

 

 

Now that the best pieces have a place, what do you do with the rest of those LEGOs? I love my friend Brittany's solution:

 

Sort by color and then . . .

 

Everything is AWESOME!