Sunday Favorites-My favorite room

Chari over at Happy to Design is again hosting "Sunday Favorites". I love this party as it let's us post something we shared in the past that you may have missed the first time around. Be sure to visit Chari (she is a hoot) and you will also find the list of this weeks participants.

Now when I originally started this blog it was for my extended family only. I tried to get them all involved in blogging by having my own weekly parties. I started one called Monday Show & Tell. Each week I had a different theme that I wanted everyone to participate in. Unfortunately I was the only member of my family that participated. So I thought I would share this particular post with all of you now since you have become part of my extended family. And you all "get" this blogging thing.

This post I originally wrote on 9/28/08. Since I originally posted this, our bedroom has changed slightly. But you'll have to wait for another "Sunday Favorites" to see. I even enjoy reposting as I can see how I've changed things up.

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Welcome to the first edition of the Monday Show & Tell. This week we are showing our favorite room in our home.

My favorite room in my house is my bedroom. I love my bedroom as this is where I get to relax & sleep. I love black & white, especially toile. And I love Paris, so most everything in my room reflects this.

I just got the netting for my bed. Came from ebay. Isn't it romantic? It was Mike's idea. He was watching some show on the travel channel & saw a bed in a hotel in the south pacific with netting on it like this & thought it would look great on our bed. And it does!!!



In the summertime I use this white matlasse coverlet. But in the winter, I have a heavier comforter that is black & white toile that matches my pillow shams.

I love my monogram pillow. I usually wouldn't splurge on something like this pillow, but it was on clearance!!! No I did not get it from ebay, but from JC Penney.

This old dresser is Mike's. I love antique dressers. I love my plates above the mirror and of course my black & white toile lampshade. Mike lets me put one of my jewelry boxes on his dresser. I didn't take a photo of my dresser as I didn't have time to clean off the top of it. I have a stack of papers a mile high.

Mike made this window using bevels & glue chip glass. In fact he made 2 of them. One for each side of the bed. He is really good at making stained glass. I love anything french, so I love the fleur de lis.

I took an old window & put a black & white poster of Paris from the early 1900's behind the window. I put it on the wall next to my bed. So this my view when I first wake up in the morning.


I love mirrors. I have alot of them around my house. Probably got that from my mom. I guess I am vain in some respects. Or I like to know that I am still around.

These are the french doors Mike put in our room this past year. I love them!!! Lets in so much light & great to have both of them open on hot summer nights. We do have screens so the bugs don't get in when the doors are open. But not very safe. Good thing we live in a safe neighborhood. I still need to put up my drapes. Notice our ugly teal blue carpet. We have this throughout our whole house. That is why all our walls are white, I don't want to paint until we get new flooring.

This is my favorite Shabby Chic pitcher. I use it alot in my ebay photos as background. I collect pitchers. Mostly white, but I do have some with roses. I love pink roses & I love shabby chic.

These are my Joseph birthday girls. I got both at a thrift store for less than $5.00 each. I love them. I wanted to collect them when I was a little girl, but didn't. I got the "7" one for Taylor (Eric's youngest daughter) when she turned 7, but I loved it so much that I couldn't part with it. Sorry Taylor.

I got my Avon Eiffel Tower perfume decanter off ebay. I use it in alot of my ebay photos & people are always asking me where I got it.

I love Paris!!!!! Want to go back some day.

I also collect white vases. Here are some of my white pitchers & vases together on top of my armoire in my bedroom. I'm going to paint this armoire black someday. I'm always going to do something some day. My house is full of unfufilled dreams & gotta do someday.

Well there you have a sample of my favorite items in my favorite room in my house. As you can tell, I love black & white toile, Paris, pitchers, white vases, roses, antique dressers, mirrors and Joseph birthday girls. What do you love or collect?

Next week's topic: Backyards. Submit photos of your backyard. What are your favorite things in your backyard?

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So now you know a little more about me & my favorite things in my favorite room in our house. Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to leave me a comment & let me know what the favorite room is in your home, and/or what you love or collect.

It's a Toile party!!!!!

I'm late, I'm late, to a very important date!! Well it is only 9am here in California, so I'm not too late. But for those of you back east, I guess I am a little late. But you know what they say, better late than never!!

So this week I've been invited (well I invited myself) to a fabulous party. A fabulous party you say? Yes, indeedee, a toile party. And anyone who knows me, knows I love me some toile. So of course I had to invite myself. I didn't want to miss out on all the lovely toile. Can you ever get too much toile? I didn't think so.

So if you don't get your fix of toile from my blog, just hop on over to Pretty Organized Palace to see everyone else participating in this party. Just a warning though, you may get a "toile" high from the experience. So you can't say I didn't warn ya!

And while we are at it, I might as well invite myself to another party. Three or More Tuesday is hosted by The Gypsy's Corner. And since I have 3 or more toile items, I think this post qualifies. So be sure to visit her and all the participants at that party as well.

So let's get this party started!!

Welcome to my, I mean our, master bedroom. Hubby didn't get much say in the decor, but he doesn't mind. As long as it wasn't pink roses, he was happy. The comforter set came from JC Penney last year. I love it. I switched it out last summer for a white matlesse coverlet. But this year I bought a flower toile coverlet that I am going to use. Notice I didn't show you a photo? That's because I was too lazy to switch it for photos. You'll just have to wait until the next toile party. At least I hope we'll have another toile party.


You can see the white matlasse coverlet in this photo. I still used the toile shams. I have plates on this wall that are toile inspired. And did you notice the lamp shade? Toile of course.
Here is a better view of the plates.
Close up of the shams. The black & white checked pillow actually has a flower toile on the other side, but I thought the checked side was a better contrast for now. Don't you love my monogramed pillow? I know I do.
Even Santa loves toile!!! I came home one night at Christmas to find Santa in my bed (don't tell my hubby). Santa just had to have his toile fix too.


My hubby just put up the toile drapes on our french doors. I forgot to take a photo of the entire door.
The lamp on my side of the bed has a toile shade as well. I have a couple of extra toile shades if anyone is interested in purchasing from me. If so, leave me a comment. You can't really see, but the pen holder on the table is also toile. Notice that I live real!!! I have kleenix, clock radio & phone on my night stand. None of the decorating stuff you see in magazines that gets in the way. I live real people, real!!! Now if only Klennix boxes came in toile. I would be a happy camper.
Toile boxes on the dresser. There is also a toile vinyl placemat under the jewelry box.
My favorite toile dishes that my hubby got me for Christmas. They are Spode.
Some toile plates in my kitchen.

I was hoping to have all my "toile" projects done by the party. But alas, I procrastinated and didn't get them done. So you will just have to use your imagination to picture the finished product. This is the rooster toile I am going to recover my kitchen dining room chairs with. It will look fabulous when done.
And this toile will be used for making new back pillows for my family room couch.
So there you have some of the toile going on, or going to be going on in my house. After I started to do this I realized other toile items in my house that I didn't photograph like the storage boxes in my closet, or the red toile apron that I never wear. You get the picture, out of sight, out of mind.

But I think I gave you enough toile for one day. If not, be sure to go to Pretty Organized Palace for some more. And don't forget to visit The Gypsy's Corner as well. And finally, why don't you leave me a comment before you leave. You know it's not polite to leave without saying "Hi!" But if you don't, I'll still love ya!!! Thanks for stopping by, and come back now, you hear!

Met Monday - Master bedroom

Welcome to another Metamorphosis Monday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. Be sure to hop on over to her blog to see all the other participants and enjoy!

I haven't participated the past few weeks as I haven't gotten anything accomplished. I'm pretty lazy and I am easily distracted. But this past week I decided to clean up my master bedroom & change some stuff. I'm happy with the changes & I know my husband is extremely happy that I finally cleaned up (well mostly).

So come along & see what I've done. I can't believe that I am actually going to show you before photos. But in order to really appreciate the after, you have to see the before. You should be able to click on any photo to enlarge it. But I am not responsible for any dirt or dust you might witness in the process. OK, I am responsible, but can I blame my hubby instead?

This first photo is the before photo of the top of my dresser. This tends to be the drop off point for all my papers, fabric, etc.

Here is the after. I moved my window with the vintage Paris print over from the other side of the room. I think I like it here better. I moved the tri fold mirror that had been on top to the side of the room that the window came from. The lamp I bought on clearance from Target when they moved the Target in our town. I just bought the black lamp shade on clearance from Ross. I really like it with the black lamp shade.
Here is the before of the area on my side of the bed. I have an antique child's dresser that becomes another dumping ground for whatever. This is where the Paris window was originally before moving it. Notice that my bed is not made & no drapes on the french doors. We love to live dangerously!


Here is the after. I moved the tri fold mirror to this small child's dresser. I love this mirror, I got it at a yard sale years ago for $5.00. Such the deal! The black cabinet that I had hubby hang on the wall came from a thrift store & it was $5.00 as well. It's been sitting in my garage for about 3 years. I just added the vintage Paris prints. Then I got hubby to hang my drapes. Did you notice? I was cleaning out my armoire I found my fleur de lis finials for the rod. I was so happy. I had been looking for them for a year. Yep, we lived a year with no drapes on our french doors. I told you we like to live dangerously.
Here's a closer view. My hubby didn't do a very good job in cleaning the mirror, did he? Oh I guess I could say it is a ghost. But I didn't want to scare anyone. The jewerly box on the small dresser belonged to my Great Grandmother. It is one of my most favorite items. The hand mirror & brush came from a thrift store. Here is the before on the top of my armoire. I collect white vases & pitchers. My plan is to paint the armoire black someday. Now that we have french doors in our bedroom, my hubby said it will be easier to get the humongous piece out the door to paint. Can't wait!

Here is the after. I had hubby hang the iron piece above the armoire. This ceiling is at it's highest at this end of the room. I also added a birdcage to the top of the armoire. Here's another before view of my side of the bedroom. What you can't see is the pile of stuff I have on the floor on the other side of the bed. And we will keep it that way. Not that we'll keep the pile of stuff there, I just won't show you the mess. You will just have to use your imagination.
This is also a before photo. This is from last summer. When it warms up in a few weeks, I will be switching out our comforter for this lighter matlasse coverlet. So then it will become an after again. Metamorphosis can go back and forth in my household.
Here is the current after. I love, love, love toile. And especially black & white toile. So when I saw this comforter set on JC Penney's website a year ago, I just had to have it. Only problem was that I didn't have the money for it. That is where my son comes to the rescue. He purchased the comforter set for me for Christmas a year ago. I've used it on my bed for a little over a year now & I still love it (well a year, minus the spring & summer months were I used my matlasse one). I did splurge & buy myself the monogramed pillow. I've always wanted one.

This is my nightstand. I know, I know, my kleenix box doesn't match or even come close. I would just love if Kleenix did toile boxes. Wouldn't that just be the best? Maybe I'll suggest it to them. I guess I could make a cover, but like I said, I'm just too lazy most of the time. Anyways, back to why I'm showing you my nightstand (I told you I am easily distracted), the table itself is a metamorphosis. It originally belonged to my MIL & it was painted avocado green with the ugliest knobs on it. Sorry I don't have a before photo, I always forget to take them. Drats!!! We painted it black & put on some new knobs & presto, chango, it became a thing of beauty. Also the lamp was originally an ugly beige. I sponged on white paint over it to give it a mottled look & then added the toile lampshade that I got on clearance at Lowes a few years back. My hubby has a matching one on his side of the room as well. It made such a huge difference just changing up the color slightly & changing the lamp shade (no before photo for this project either, sorry).


Here is the little shelf with my girly pink things. I didn't show this photo when I posted for "What's on my Wall Wednesday" as I hadn't dusted. So today I dusted so you could see. I still need to put a photo or print in my frame. I'm notorious for buying frames & displaying them without any photos. It's that laziness thing again.

So here is a couple of final looks at our bedroom (my side at least). This is the before.



And here is the after. Sorry about the glare, it was early evening when I took this photo today & the sun was coming through the leaded window. I hope you enjoyed my bedroom metamorphosis. I'm happy with the results. But not sure how long I can keep it clean. Did you notice that I didn't show you my hubby's side of the room? He had stuff on his dresser & I didn't get it quite cleaned off in time to take photos before I lost the light from the sun. Maybe in another post? Depends on how lazy I am and what I can find to distract me.

Now go check out all the other participants and see what they've been up to. And don't forgot to leave everyone a comment (including me). We like to know what you think & if you have any suggestions. Especially on not being lazy & getting so distracted. Thanks for visiting!

What's On Your Wall Wednesday-Master bedroom

Bonjour! It's Wednesday & that means it is another episode of "What's on Your Wall Wednesday" hosted by the fabulous Barb at Grits and Glamour. Be sure to stop on over to her blog to see what's on her wall and to find the list of all the other participants. It's quite fun & addicting. You know you want to peek!!

Last week I showed you the walls in my office at work. This week, I am letting you into my master bedroom. Luckily we are only showing the stuff on our walls, as that is the only part of my room that is presentable at the moment. But I did make my bed, even though you can't see it. That counts for something right?

Six years ago we were lucky enough to travel to Europe on vacation. It was amazing & I highly recommend that everyone visit Europe at least once in your life. I especially loved Paris, so when we moved into our house I decided to decorate our room "Frenchy" and in black & white. And of course we must have some toile.

You can click on any photo to enlarge it.

Here we have the 3 plates hanging above my husbands dresser. I love these plates.

I bought this plate off of ebay. I forgot to look to see who the maker is before I left home.
Another ebay find. I've had this plate for about 6 years. I love it!!!
This plate came from Marshall's or TJ Maxx (aren't they the same thing?)
My husband made the leaded glass window. In fact, he made 2 of them. I've shown them before in a Metamorphosis Monday post, click here to see better photos. I love the fleur de lis design in the middle.
I bought this hanger at Ross about 6 years ago. I still love it!
This wall is the little area between the door to our room & the walk through to the bathroom. Can't remember where I got the Bon Jour sign. The mirror came from Mervyn's about 5-6 years ago. It is made to look like a ghost mirror with cloudy areas. The shelf came from TJ Maxx years ago. The bird house on the left is actually a Christmas ornament. I put a candle inside. The bear is one of many in my bear collections. I've posted about my other bears here. He has a pink Eiffel Tower sitting between his legs. The pink candle holder came from K Mart years ago & the cherub planter was a thrift store find. I should have taken a better photo of the fairy/cherub print below the shelf but I forgot. I got it off ebay.
These 3 prints I got when we were in Paris. I don't really like the frame they are in, but it works. I should paint it black. I'll put it on my to do list.
This tin sign I bought off a website katiesrosecottage.com a couple of years ago. She mostly sells Shabby Chic & Frenchy stuff. I love her stuff. You should check her website out sometime, she has cute stuff & very reasonably priced.
I love this Eiffel Tower print. It came from Kirkland's last year. I bought it on clearance. I just hope it doesn't fall on our heads if we have an earthquake. But the bed is pulled away from the wall, so I'm hoping if we do have an earthquake, it will just fall off behind the bed. Cross your fingers!!!
This set up is over a small child's dresser that is by my side of the bed.
This is my favorite thing on my wall (at least for now). My brother in law found the old frame at the dump & knew I was looking for one. And then one day I was walking through the mall & I saw this black & white poster of vintage Paris. I fell in love with it immediately & knew I wanted to hang it behind the window. I wanted it to feel like I was walking up each morning looking at Paris. Can you think of anything better?
I got this little plaque at TJ Maxx years ago. I loved it as it reminded me of our trip to Venice & to Italy.
These 3 plates hang above the french doors leading out to our backyard. I purchased them off ebay a few years back.
So there you have the walls of my bedroom. I showed you everything except for 1 small wall that holds a shelf with my girlie things. I didn't take a photo as everything needed to be dusted & I was just too lazy to do it. Sorry! I'll save it for another post.

Hope you enjoyed taking a peek into my master bedroom walls. Leave me a comment to let me know you stopped by & I'll return the favor.

Au Revoir et salut until next week!!!