I'd like to introduce you to my friend Piano.

I love my piano, the Mr. HATES it...I don't know why he's never had to lift/move it...if he had...then he would have a reason to hate it, because it is a BEAST!!!

**It's okay poor piano you're big and there's nothing wrong with that because you're also BEAUTIFUL....but I must tell you you've been soooo awkward in my living room for so many years because of your size it's hard to dress you up.**

The piano and I have this strange love/hate relationship because I LOVE the piano, seriously I LOVE IT...love it's beauty, love it's sound, love it's history (it's over a 100 years old)...BUT I hate how when you walk into my living room that it's THE first thing you see in all it's almost nakedness and honestly it just hasn't been working for me.

Decorating the top of the piano has become my nemesis....it has driven me INSANE.

This is what my poor friend I like to call Piano has looked like for a while now...I'm sorry Piano.

Ohhhh you poor thing, why didn't you tell me how ugly you felt???

I decided to swap these out... (they use to have cobalt blue & clear marbles in the vases but I got tired of them and threw them away before I thought to take a picture of them)


with this...I thought the punch of color might be nice, plus I spent a pretty penny on this vase/candleholder from Partylite and have felt guilty for not using it yet (don't ever let your guilt get in the way of beauty)..... this look did NOT work at all.


Then I was at Michael's and they have all their fall stuff on sale...WOOHOO...and I found this little sprig(is that a word?!?) of stuff and liked it a lot, plus it was only $2.00.


Okay, that's a little better, but my friend, Piano still looks nekid.


It's all about balance and the tiny little pictures and items just don't work on the big piano.

I was getting desperate...so into my bedroom I went and stole the mirror. I also put up a fabulous kijiji find (I'll tell you about it in another post because I don't want to steal Piano's thunder) and moved my temple picture around...hmmmm looking a LOT better.


Then late last night I went and picked up my newest purchase from Partylite

...WOOHOO...and it was like adding earrings to an already GREAT outfit..just finished off the look.

Here she is in all her glory.



But me being the crazy person I am, I'm just not sure that it's 100%...I'm still feeling like something is missing...but it will stay this way till I figure it out. Let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions.

Like I said in my 1st post I am addicted to creative people's blogs, and if you look over to the right, those are a bunch of the blogs that I LOVE. While snooping through all these blogs I will find pictures of rooms that I LOVE and want to remember them so I'll save them to my computer. However, it was getting out of control, I probably have over 300 pictures of just things I've found and liked. I needed to do something with all those pictures so I organized them into files.



A look into a couple of those files:

a picture from the kitchen file..



a picture from the great ideas file....


Ahhhh....it's much easier to find a picture now.

~I have no idea who these pictures belong to~

Years ago I got a subscription to this magazine and I LOVE it. However, 13 magazines a year (there is always a special holiday magazine) for 6 years makes a total of 78 magazines, and that is just WAY too many to keep. So a few years ago I started to go through the magazines and cut out the pictures that intrigued me and the rest of the magazine went into recycling. Sometimes I would love a whole room or some of the artwork or maybe even just a flower arrangement but I cut them out and put them in here ...pretty fancy hey?!? :) It's my inspiration binder and I've seperated it into sections...
Master Bedroom

Kids Rooms
(btw, if I had had a girl, look how SWEET this room is)
Living rooms, Kitchen, Bathroom
Holidays
and extras(these are wallpapers I liked from Home Depot).
I use to just put the pictures into the plastic sheeting but they were all messed up and I would have to dig through them to find something that I was looking for. Brilliant idea.... I glued the pictures to a plain white piece of paper.... I know, I know....soooo smart. Now I can see everything quickly and I can add more pictures easily and neatly.

I LOVE my inspiration binder. I LOVE looking through it and adding to it, now I need to just use the inspiration to make my home BEAUTIOUS!!!

***All the pictures in this post are from House & Home Canada***

Why?

Why did I decide to make this blog? There's a few reasons:

1) I am a homeowner that is not filthy rich, nor am I willing to spend mega bucks on decor but I am VERY tired of my boring, nekid walls and bland rooms.

2)I think I have an addiction to creative people's blogs....maybe because I am not the most creative person out there and I get so many great ideas from these people. I am Jackie Shutra, and I admit that I am a decorating blog junkie :)

3)I didn't want my personal blog to be inundated by all my decorating adventures, ideas or finds.

4)I'll have a place to write down my ideas, keep track of pictures that I like, help myself remember blogs that I love and just clear up my favorites file.

I am always looking for more ideas so feel free to link me to your blogs, or show me your cool finds, or even tell me some helpful tips... I am always wanting to learn!!!