First project of the new year; Pondering my ponderance; Glitter Shoes

Nothing makes me happier than a house project! - although I'm sure Matt would prefer things that didn't take up so much of his time to make me happy :) Have you ever made a decision that seemed like the right thing to do at the time, but then you changed your mind later? Here's an example:

Our house is a center hall colonial. When you walk in the front door, there's a 12x12 room on the right, as shown here. My desk and computer are in here, as well as a piano; two rocking chairs also reside here (a spur of the moment purchase made in the bleariness of when William was a 4 week old baby - one rocker would have been fine, and saved us I'm-too-embarrassed-to-mention-how-much); It's an awkward room with two windows in the front, and I've never known quite what to do with it. I never hung anything on the walls, and my attempt to turn it into a music room never quite came off right.

Now that both Evie and William have quit playing piano, the only use this room gets is when 1) Matt calls his parents & sits in a rocker or 2) Someone's on the computer.

The other side of the wall looks like this, in the family room.

And here's the view, coming into the back of the house from the front.

When we moved in there was a 4 foot cased opening in that wall in between the rooms. Back in 2004, we decided we wanted to make use of that wall on both sides, so we closed them up. Here's what it looked like then:

Fast forward 7 years, and yes - you guessed it - I want the wall open again.So this weekend Matt took his Sawz all to the living room side to open it up & see what the rough opening is, because instead of leaving it as an opening, we're going to put in French doors :) Yay! Now we'll be able to close the room off if we want to, or open it up for entertaining. We'd always hoped to be able to put an addition on the house & expand the kitchen & family room area, but reality and the economy has set in and we realize that just doesn't make sense. So we're making changes to what we have to make the space work better for us for the coming years.

And that red paint? Gone. I've hated it since the day I put the brush and mini roller down. It looks nice in pictures, but that's about it - 8 coats of red matte finish paint that took me over a week to do, and you can't so much as breathe on it or you'll make a dusty smudge on the paint. It'll be a happy day when it's painted over :)

Hopefully next weekend will see the installation of doors; the TV on the other side of the wall will be going in the corner next to the fireplace, and the bookcase is on its way up to our bedroom, for MY books! All that kid stuff on it will be relocated elsewhere or donated. Happy me :)

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When we closed up that wall in 2004, we stuck a newspaper and photos of us in there, in case anyone ever opened it up again (never thinking it would be us - although it was always in the back of our minds that we could, if we wanted to). Nothing quite like seeing pictures of your 7 year-younger, skinnier self to bring reality to your world.

Do I look that much older today? I don't think so - but 2 more kids and 7 years later, I'm up 15 lbs from here. 8 of which I managed to put on in the last two months. EEEEEK! So like everyone else trying to start the new year right, it's back to counting calories and cardio cardio cardio. WHY is it so easy to gain and so difficult to lose?? Sigh.

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I finished our glitter shoes this weekend, following directions from WANM, HERE! They turned out great - Evie wanted purple for Sypro the Dragon, and I'm in love with my multi-color glitter shoes. I will say this - if you have a yen for some glitter shoes and can find a pair for $25 or so, it's probably worth it to get them. This took me way longer than I thought it would, and I spent $15 on the shoes, glitter, and sealer spray. If you can find a cheapo pair of flats - or even have a pair that have seen better days but are still wearable - and have a 2+ hours to spare, then GLITTER AWAY! I can't wait to wear mine :)