A Girl Named Timi

Suzy Orman Would Be So

Disappointed In Us

With the economic state the country is in, we here at The House of B's have been trying not to spend money just like everyone else, cutting back and taking Suzy Orman's money advice. Well..... I am trying to take her advice, The Hubs gets tired of me quoting her. Then I see something I think I can't live without and totally forget the advice. The last couple weeks that whole cutting back thing has gone right in the shitter! As most of you know we did a little room updating and with all that money spending it all leads to more money spending. Example.........................

The Hubs got the stairs and railings all lacqure-finished this weekend (another $50 trip to the hardware store) and when it was all done they were beautiful and ..........slicker than snot! Poor Charlie and Franklin were having a terrible time getting up and down the stairs. It was just a matter of time before one of us took a spill or worse yet.........a guest.

So off to town to find a solution to the problem. I found this great runner for the stairs at Bed Bath and Beyond and the colors are so P E R F E C T! Beige, browns, blues, and a little green. I'm lovin it! I had a 20% off coupon so the price wasn't too bad. Still a little more expensive than I would have liked but if you love it, you love it. We got home, put it on the stairs and it was THE ONE! Then it was decided we needed another one for in front of the French doors. I like how it adds a little more color.

On our second trip back to Bed Bath and Beyond to get another runner, we also picked up a Gel Pro Mat for the kitchen. I've been looking at these for years online. They used to only be available online and I was scared to spend that much money for something I couldn't touch first and see the colors up close. Bed Bath and Beyond now carries them and I was so excited. They don't have the color and style range that they have on the Gel Pro website, but now I can try one and see if they are everything I hoped they would be.

I have Plantar Fasciitis along with an obscene amount of bone spurs so standing on the hard wood floors for a long period of time kills me. Which means baking/ cooking for long periods of time or just standing and chatting while someone is sitting at the counter requires days of icing and Advil afterwards. I have high hopes of this being the answer to all my problems.

Dark brown basket weave pattern.
I got the small rug to start with for in front of my cook top, where I end up standing most of the time. I'm thinking now I need to get the longer runner to go in front of the sink.

Next stop...............

With a stop by the stove store and some more money spent, the gas stove is hooked up and working! I love it! It looks so much better.

This is so cozy now. It makes it hard to get up and do anything. I want to sit here 24/7 reading and blogging. We are soooooooo enjoying our new updated downstairs. It's wonderful!

I spent a little time hanging some stuff on the walls and decided I hated all the old stuff that was on the walls. I kept two things and hung them up.

I think I might hate this clock now. Or maybe it just needs something else up there on the wall with it????? Any ideas???

I bought this Tole painted wall hanging a couple years ago at my favorite antique store Annie's. I love this, it's been hung up in a corner where it didn't get much attention. Now I think it's time to bring it out and hang it on the big blank wall. I'm thinking two long mirrors on either side of it would be great. Then it would reflect the light off the French doors from the sun room. Another trip to town to spend money I guess.

I also went to some holiday bazaars this weekend too. I didn't find much. Unfortunately the holiday bazaars in my area are tried, the same ole same ole and nothing really new and exciting. There is a church near me who started having holiday bazaars last year and they do a great job. Their bazaar usually has great fresh new stuff. I could have bought them out (I had Suzy Orman on one shoulder saying "don't do it", and my subconscious on the other shoulder saying "buy it! They only have one sale a year!") but I settled on these bunches of dried hydrangea.

I love this look. I know it's old school and a big decorating NO NO but dried hydrangea is still one of my favorites. Now I need to find something else to put in the other crock.

The colors in these hydrangea are great. I love them.

So remember back on August 13 when I showed you all my messes around the house? I aired my dirt so to speak . By doing that I had hoped it would motivate me to get crackin and I WOULD HAVE TO clean them up. The plan was to get it all done immediately and then show you pictures. Well it didn't happen immediately but I have been working on it.

This was our guest room. It looked like a bomb went off. Mostly Franklin the cat was happy in here because he could sleep and not be seen. EVER! This room was covered with cat hair! It was not only messy but nasty dirty. Giant cat bed.

BEFORE

After

I spent half a day in here cleaning up, putting away and doing laundry. You can see the bed and floor. It's a miracle!

This closet lost it's doors when we moved in. They had been painted purple (the room was bubble gum pink with purple trim) when we moved in so we just took them off and threw them away. I needed to find something to hang on them until we can find closet doors to fit. I found these smocked curtains at Walmart a couple years ago and never used them for what I bought them for. So today........they are hanging in place of closet doors.

I layered my bed skirt with a chenille bedspread because the skirt was is too long for the bed (I bought bigger for a longer drop) and I'm out of room in the closet where I store my chenille bedspread collection. Which needs to be cleaned out one day soon.

I got all 3 boxes of linens and all the linens off the floor put away in this dresser I took out of my bedroom when I rearranged it a month or so ago.

I cleaned and dusted the perfume bottles and took some of them away. I had too many and it was so cluttered. I boxed some up and put them away.

I also made a trip downtown Seattle this last weekend to get some more tea. I had some other errands to run while down there but this was the most important. Seattle Tea Cup is suppose to be opening a big new store across the street. I'm so excited for that and I was hoping it would be open this time. It wasn't but never the less this stop makes me super happy. I got my usual order as well as a couple samples of other teas. Winter 2008 which smells very holidayish. vanilla, cinnamon and carmel are the flavors I picked up on. Then the Imperial tea is just a nice mild goes with everything tea.

Well that concludes this weekends spending spree. Totally not Suzy Orman approved!

I have been really behind on my blogging, reading and getting back to people. I apologize to all of you for that. I've been super busy and it's going to continue into this next week as well. BUT I promise............Next week is going to be a blogging extravaganza. Consider yourself notified that your going to need to stock up on coffee, treats, whores breakfast, whatever you like when reading blogs. It's also possible you will need a lot of time for my upcoming blogs. I have a couple things I'm working on that are totally Blog Worthy!

Stay Tuned............