What Ana Does

This is the first time since early childhood that I have a laundry room that isn't just part of the basement. So, we're excited to put this room to good use. It's also part mudroom, so what you're not seeing are all the hooks and shoes stashed neatly (for now) by the door. We spent some time this week cleaning it up and working on some organizing. Of course, painting the walls will be phase 2. I'm thinking a sunny blue to match the pretty curtains. And notice the Flor carpet tiles that we brought from the old house. These were in our basement and created a path to our washer/dyer. We arranged them into a checkerboard here. Love how easy they are to reuse. Laundry Room Gets Some Cleaning Up

Found some colorful fabrics for the living room/dining room. And since the room is mostly empty of furniture and art, I hung them on the wall as a kind of "mood board." I'm really digging yellow and sea blues like turquoise. But I really need to figure out furniture for the room first. I'll buy a new sofa, but I want to find some funky vintage pieces at local thrift shops. I'll start exploring next month.

I'm planning to make some pillows with my beloved curtain fabric but started with a little valence to cover the shade's roller mechanism over the sink. What do you think? The sun comes in full-power in this window (hence the herbs along the sill), so the shade is moved around a lot during the day, so I don't go blind. Still can't get over how the tan in the fabric just so happens to match the cupboards almost perfectly. Sigh. Pillows this weekend. I want to do the fancy cording with white, so I'll to do some extra research. I'll post photos when they're done.  Related posts: More Kitchen stories

Drum roll please ... The final curtains over the porch doors look awesome! And they are functional, too! (Sorry about the foggy picture!)

Can't waste all this light we're getting in the family room. Introducing Polly or Ginger -- we're still deciding on the name. It's a Palm! Related posts: More Family Room stories

The Doors! The Problem:   I have this huge door with nothing to prevent the sun from streaming in (in the rare event that I need a break from it) and at night when we're feeling a little exposed. Luckily, there's no direct view into a neighbor's house. There was an ugly vertical blind on it when we moved in, but Maggie and I got rid of that in the first week. Yuck. The Solution: Fabulous curtains! As mentioned previously, I found the perfect fabric at a shop in Montclair. They sent it to me. Then, I had to find a liner and hardware. Which I picked up at JoAnn's last weekend (special shout-out to the Albertons for a great Christmas gift). Ready to be a Curtain! I started the project this morning and it's taken me all day to finish (ignoring the children all day -- the house is a mess). But it's well worth it. Here is a quick outline of the steps. 1) Hang rod (that took a few days -- I got the wrong size first, then the holes were impossible to ma...

The last time it snowed we were unpacking the truck and moving in. It was gone the next day. This little storm with 6inches may stick around for awhile.