Enjoy what you do?

A few weeks ago, my husband and I had the wonderful opportunity to go in for an Audit!!! Ok, so I am totally lying, it wasn't wonderful at all! It was an Audit for our 2007 taxes... this was a CRAZY year for us! We built our spec homes (we are living in one of them now) and I started up my Mural and Interior Design business. At the end of 2007, after 6 years of trying, I found out that I was pregnant with my first daughter! Because of this, I did not continue in pursuing my business.

We were sitting down with the Auditor and he asked me what my business was. I told him that it was a mural business and Interior Design. He had to ask (as a lot of people do) what a Mural was. I told that I painted on walls :) I painted pictures in kids rooms and play rooms. So he asks the question "Do you like what you do?" What kind of a question is that? Would I try to start up a business if I didn't enjoy doing it? I told him "yea, I enjoy doing it"...... because I enjoy doing my Interior Design that I went to school for and I enjoy painting Murals, he didn't consider it a real business!!!! So apparently if you enjoy what you do, it isn't a real job! We were so ticked at the guy after this. Because I did not continue the business in 08, he doesn't consider it a real business pursuit and he wouldn't let me have the tax write offs. GGGRRRRR! He asked me why I didn't pursue it after I had the baby..... I GOT PREGNANT AGAIN! Now I know you can still do things when you are pregnant.... but how would it be if I'm on a ladder and needing to throw up while at somebody else's home... not a pretty thought! It just boggles my mind that because I enjoyed what I was doing, it wasn't a business..... it was a hobby to them.

Yes, I LOVE Interior Design... that is why I chose to go to school in it!

Yes, I love painting Murals. It is so rewarding to step back and see what you created and see how excited little kids get when they see it and it is just for them. It is definitely hard on the body, and that is the main reason that I didn't pursue it while pregnant.

I love being creative with my hands and creating something beautiful!

(Side note - the bottom picture is of a flower arrangement I did for grandma. All of the children and grandchildren gave her a silk flower for her 80th birthday and I created this arrangement to represent her posterity... such a cool idea... it wasn't mine, I just created the arrangement)

The truth of the matter is, I LOVE Interior Design, Murals, being creative, and I love writing in this blog and giving people FREE advice on how to make their homes beautiful with out spending much money..... but to be completely honest with you (whoever is out there still reading this) I don't have the money to throw into my house right now. I desperately wish that I had the time and money to work on my house every single day and give ideas to everyone out there. I yearn to be creative in my daily life and it just doesn't happen. I love it when things come into my life for FREE. I appreciate them greatly and so I can only assume that other people appreciate getting things or advice for FREE also. Please let me know you are there and reading this. If there are people out there who do appreciate the free things that come into there life, I will find ways to still post tips and pictures on here. I may have to find other people's homes to post on here..... maybe my neighbors will want some design advice if I can post the projects they do on here... I guess I am a social comment snob! I assume that people don't read this blog if they don't leave comments, but I know that isn't true because I read certain blogs daily, but hardly ever leave comments.

I don't pretend or claim to be a great blogger or writer.... actually, I know an English teacher would just gasp at the way I write.... I sometimes tend to be a blunt person and I may offend people (but that is NEVER my intention), I just like to say it how I see it. I have a lot to learn on how to blog and make it better. I now know that there are a lot of great blogs out there and I really would like to make this blog into one of those great blogs. That is my wish... now to find a way to make it really happen....

Thank You to those of you who have stuck with me through my indecisiveness of what to do with my Interior Design passion and my lack of blogging skills and money to my own home.

Mom's Bonus Room

This past weekend, I along with some siblings, painted my mom's bonus room. We just painted the entire room an off white color and I can't even tell you what a breath of fresh air it is already!

This is the before picture of it with the wood trim. I couldn't stand the wood trim anymore, so we decided to paint all of the trim in the room the white and it looks so amazing already! It lightened the room immensely, but of course I didn't get a picture of it after it was finished being painted. (I will get that soon)

Next week I will be going back by myself and staining the room. We are going to leave the doors the off white color along with the trim and I will just be staining the walls around it. We aren't doing inside of the closet, do I decided to climb in the closet and do a sample of the stain on the back side of the wall. I am using a lighter stain than I have used before and I think I picked out the perfect color for this room! It will be the perfect shade to blend the white trim and doors to the dark headboard. I can't wait to get it done... then we will be replacing carpet and finishing up with furniture. Oh, we will also be replacing the railing sometime this year with a nice wrought iron rail.... can't wait to show pictures of the progress.

Sitting in my Master Bedroom... FINALLY!!!

I have been wanting a sitting area in my Master Bedroom ever since I moved into this house almost a year ago. A long time ago I did a post on space planning and showed options of a sitting area I could do in my bedroom.

This is the one that I liked the best, mainly for the functionality of it in my life. I looked and looked and looked and looked.... you get the idea.... everyday for probably 8 months straight trying to find a loveseat (on my trusty KSL Classifieds, of course I look for used). I originally looked for neutral ones and realized that it wouldn't look good against my neutral colored walls. So I decided that I wanted a greenish color, after an extremely long time of looking I got impatient and almost found myself settling for a chair .... was definitely open to a chair and half... I just wanted SOMETHING in there!!!

My husband found an ad on KSL for a FREE chair and ran out and got it. It was a chair and a half and I was so excited to finally have something. It was late at night when he got home with it so we had to wait until the next day to go out and look at it...... It was free for a reason! They had left this chair outside and the weather had gotten a hold of it. It was stained and faded from the weather and I was so DISAPPOINTED! It is a GREAT chair but I don't have the time or patience to make a slip cover for this thing. My husband and I played with options for a bit and we realized that we would end up spending $50 or so on fabric and that we could find something better with that money so......

The day before Mother's Day my husband found an ad on KSL for a green loveseat and ottoman and it was literally down the street from us! He jumped in the Suburban and went and picked it up! This is what he got....
Now.... my original plan was to have it angled into the room and use the 2 storage ottomans at the foot of the bed (that my husband and I made from scratch) as the ottoman for the loveseat. Well this green ottoman came with the loveseat so I wasn't going to pass that up but it is WAY bigger than I was originally having in there..... so we decided that we should push it back into the little look we have there.
As you can see, we have a lot more work to do in here but I have been waiting FOREVER to get the seating in here and then work around it. YES I know that the wall behind the loveseat still isn't fixed (missed it... check it out here) and yes the tape is still on the ceiling because my husband refuses to take it down since he thinks he is going to fix the wall sometime soon (it's been like 9 months already).... And the lovely old filing cabinet.... UGLY I know! But I needed something to put a lamp on since in the evening it is so dark in that corner. I will eventually get a sofa table or small dresser along that wall so that I can have a lamp on it and some storage. I don't like to store my clothes in a dresser so it won't be used for that purpose. It is still a work in progress but I can't even tell you how much I LOVE having a place to sit in there now! My husband and I sit in there every night and read together, play SUDOKU together and I now have a comfy place to nurse my baby in..... LOVE IT..... now to decorate the walls and the rest of the room so it looks complete!