Feng Shui

     I love to change things around, furniture and decor wise. I thing that your decor gets stale if you keep it the same way for years on end. Come on, admit it, you get tired of looking at the same four pictures on your walls, and if you sit in the same place on the couch every day you'll end up making that one place sag faster than all the other seats! Plus I'm a big believer in anti-packratism. Yes, I just made that word up. I throw things away constantly. I think it's because I've moved so many times, but I don't like to accumulate. Just having to keep paperwork like tax receipts and school records hurts me, because it's paper piled up in drawers that I'm not ever going to use. The only thing I don't like getting rid of is art supplies. That stuff is expensive! Plus, there's pretty much nothing you can't reuse somehow :) That's the beauty of up-cycling.

     Anyway, this week, I decided to get a little creative in my room. I have a pretty small room, and I really can't move the big furniture around, but I've been wanting to do some changing up with the little things like my bookshelves and my reading nook and such.

This is one new addition I just got back from getting framed. It's hanging over my bed now. I just loved the frame - it's like old barnwood, not smoothed out or finished.

My great-grandmother Angel Falkner was an artist, and I think every one of my family members has at least one of her pieces. I have this piece (Foggy Morning in the Spring) and a pretty aqua blue and cream one of dogwood blossoms (that my mama is going to have to give me back - it's hanging in her bathroom at the moment).

Don't you just love Hobby Lobby? Flowers 50% off means I get to make something for the naked corner of my room. I love the cream ostrich feathers against the plum here. And yes, my room is two different colors of purple. The long walls are the light color, and the short wall and the bay where my window is is the dark.

     While I was gone to Ecuador, my parents had a chaise and a rocking chair recovered for me. I had bought the rocking chair at an antique store and it just needed new cushions, but I inherited the chaise from my grandparents and it was in really really bad shape. As in, 'it's not coming in the house until it's fixed' bad shape. One of our neighbors does upholstery and builds furniture, so he took on the job. It came back a new being!

Isn't it pretty? And the fabric is devine. It's a kind of soft linen-cottony blend, but that creamy white color will match anything I ever want to use it with. And it sits like a dream.

I even bought new pillows. Actually, to tell the truth, that wasn't entirely my idea. The dog sort of befouled one of my other black pillows, and beaded pillows and washing machines don't go well together. Oh well, I like these better anyway!

      I had that nook built into my room specifically to make a reading nook like this. I've always wanted some place just to be able to curl up with a blanket and read for hours, and now I have it!

I just love the lamp in my nook. Isn't it just fun and quirky? I found it at Redesigning Women, a kind of thrift/antique/anything store in New Albany, for twenty bucks, and all I had to do was put the black shade on it. You never know what you'll find going hunting in there.

The mirror I got at First Monday years ago, for I think five bucks. Some clorox wipes and a few coats of paint later and voila! Beautimus.

Oh, and if I ever complain about needing more room for books, I ain't lying! I have this bookcase and another just like it on the other side of my room, and only about one and a half shelves left! I have more books than I do shoes and purses combined!

Now you've all seen where I live...or at least where I lay my head down at night. Hopefully one day I'll be able to start those dream house decorating blogs I'm already planning out in my head!