starting with the living room

 Thank you, everyone for the get well wishes. That nasty respiratory flu bug lasted

"only" four days ~ which isn't bad for the flu, I suppose. But those four days were the

sickest I've been in many years. There wasn't much I could do except rely on good

old-fashioned home remedies (sipping warm water with raw honey and fresh lemon;

steaming my face over a pot of water with tea tree oil in it) and upping my dosages

of vitamins C and D3 and Allibiotic (a mixture of elderberry, olive leaf extract, garlic,

oregano oil and rosemary oil). I don't like to take anything "over-the-counter"....

I prefer to use natural ingredients whenever possible. I find most of that OTC stuff makes

me wired and sets my heart to racing anyway.

So now that I'm well, I've been working on rearranging and organizing some rooms.

It's frigidly cold here (below zero temps), so what better time than to start indoor

 organization projects? I have so much to work on, but I started with the living room. 

Remember how the black ladder bookcase used to be on the other side of the living room

 with vintage suitcases and plants stacked next to it? I moved it to this wall where the 

buffet used to be. I think it looks so much better over here - really opens this space up. 

That buffet is so big and cumbersome that it took up that entire space and crowded out the couch.  

Brian moved the buffet for me to where the black ladder bookcase used to be. (Side

note: my mom said this spring she wants to teach me how to re-do the buffet. I'd like

to paint it flat black and leave the top with the mahogany finish, but fixed up and varnished.)

In other words, I traded places with these two pieces of furniture. Now the two big

things are deciding what to hang above the buffet (art work? floating shelves?) and

deciding what to finally do with that darn fireplace wall!

 

I had ordered a large white moulded floating shelf to go on the fireplace wall

and I was going to put corbels under it - kind of like a faux mantletop. After waiting

six weeks for the shelf and some shipping mishaps, I finally got the shelf. It was damaged

in three places, one of which was a deep crack. Totally unacceptable. I wrote to the company

and asked for my money back - which they gave me. And they didn't even want the 

shelf back! In the meantime, I found a carpenter who does custom wood working and

sent him some pictures of what we're looking for as far as a simple mantle. He's working

up a quote for us. I am hoping that it's not too expensive. After living in this house for almost

26 years, I think it's about time we finally get this fireplace wall finished the way it should've

been in the first place! It's always been a matter of finances though.

 I moved the vintage suitcases and plants in front of the window - another thorn-in-my

side area. I hate that fake plastic brown molding around the windows. I don't want to

replace it with white molding until we get new windows. So I'm thinking this spring that

I will just prime and paint the molding white. I also desperately need new curtains. I

have tried several pairs and nothing has looked "just right". I was looking at curtains online

yesterday and found these from World Market. I think I may order them.

 Today, I'm tackling the kitchen. Cleaning out the junk drawer, the baking cabinet,

the food pantry cabinet, and the freezer. Organizing my cookbooks and redoing

the inside of the china cabinet. What organizational projects are you working on

this January?