RAWR!

I have been looking for a something to hang above the fireplace.  My budget is pretty limited right now, and large prints/paintings that I've liked have been way out of my price range.  And everything in my price range is pretty uninspiring or boring, or just not me. 

I was talking to my sister's about this, and J recommended I do something like this.

I have this weird obsession with T-Rex and T-Rex jokes.  I have multiple T-Rex towels in my downstairs bathroom, I wear t shirts with it.  This is perfect for me.

So I searched and found a stock image that I liked, and had it printed at Staples as a black and white engineering print.  I found a frame I liked (I am thinking of getting a red frame mat, but I'm waiting to decide if I want that or not).

And for about $30, I have something that makes me smile every time I see it, and completely fits me. 

The living room

There is a large room when you first walk in, that probably used to be a dining room/living room set up. 

But at some point, they put carpet in the whole room and I think made it into one "great room" (I refuse to have a carpeted dining room).  I decided to kind of split it back into two areas, while still keeping the open concept layout going.

I made the front of the room a sitting area in front of the fireplace.  It's nice to sit and read or knit, or just have a conversation with someone.

Then, I divided the room with my sofa and sofa table to create a separate tv area. I still need to mount the tv (the windows give a bad glare in the afternoon and I'm hoping a tilt mount will help with that), but it's mostly done.

At this point, my "great room" is competing for favorite room of the house (tied with my bedroom).  I absolutely love this room and love walking in my front door to it.

Bedroom curtains

I feel like I've actually made a lot of progress with my house, I just don't want to take p pictures until everything looks "perfect".  This is stupid, it will never be perfect. 

My living room is basically done, I just have some boxes to run down to the basement but I keep holding off on taking a picture until I do that.  The kitchen is unpacked, but I want to eventually paint and such in there, so again, no pictures.  Same with the bathroom.

I'm apparently really bad at taking "in progress" pictures.

However, I broke down and took a picture of a section of my bedroom.  Yay!  I have curtains!  (Jess and Lisa will be mocking my "floods" I have going on in all my rooms, but I love them anyway)

My crafting room

I'm used to growing up in a house with a sewing room for my mom, so it makes perfect sense to me to have a "craft room" in my house.  So I can knit or sew or any other fun hobby I want to pick up.

Additionally, when I was in high school, I visited one of J's college friend's childhood house for a party and fell in love with the color of her bedroom.  Since then, I have always wanted a green room, but never really had the opportunity for one.

Until now. 

It's just a small peek of the painted room, and I'll show more as I decorate it, but it certainly is bright...and I kind of am in love with it.

Bedroom

I feel like I've been unable to unpack my bedroom because I didn't have any dressers (I threw my old one out bc it was broken).  But, I didn't want to get dressers until I painted the bedroom. 

I finally got the room painted a lovely dark blue (ugh, two coats and I could use a third in some areas, but screw it), maybe in a few months :)

And since I didn't have enough other stuff to do with my time (sarcasm), I bought two unfinished dressers from IKEA and proceeded to paint and stain them.  And then build them.  This took almost a week and I never want to touch another piece of furniture ever again.  Everything about the process was horrible.

But, finally, painted walls and dressers and it's feeling like my bedroom.