On our first trip to Mexico we bought the above print. I found it in what is now my favorite shop in Tulum and it was cheap — 150 pesos, if I recall correctly. That’s about 10 bucks.

I saw it and it made me laugh and I had to have it. Not for the whole Lucha libre thing but for the school bus. And the guy in the Lucha libre mask with the long blond hair who reminds me of Dale. And the boy on the other side of the bus who reminds me of Patrick. There’s a lot going on and it’s all funny and I bought it instantly.

When we brought it home we took it to be framed and that added, oh, about $200 to the price of our $10 print. Yikes. And we got it home and we hated it. At that point the mat that is gray in this photo was bright blue. It was way too bright and a big distraction and totally took away from the picture itself. We lived with it for a couple of weeks but ultimately decided it needed to be changed so we brought it back and they swapped out the blue for this soft gray and — OH!!! — so much better.

Now it hangs in our kitchen and it brings back memories of Mexico. It’s the perfect souvenir.

I love to decorate my house for fall. I have leaf-y garlands and pumpkins and quilted things. I have some things that are specific for Halloween but I have quite a few things that are specific for Thanksgiving and those are my favorite.

I have a few signs and a lot of ceramic turkeys. I have a thankful banner for the mantel and I think shed antlers go great with the Thanksgiving theme so those are on the mantel, too. I have some quilted Thanksgiving wall hangings and wine glasses that I only use this time of year. I really think setting the stage for a holiday makes a big difference when it comes to celebrating and enjoying the season and because I love Thanksgiving so much I love all of these decorations.

One week from today, though, they will all be tucked away for another year. I plan to spend this week enjoying them as much as I can.

Part of the reason I have been holding off on showing you the remodel of our den is because I have had a hard time finding before pictures. You would think, at this point in my blogging career, that I would have been smart enough to have taken photos before we started this remodel. Before we ripped out the existing window. Before we replaced the ceiling. Before we put down new carpet over the old and ugly yellow linoleum. Before we took down the green & blue plaid wallpaper that was falling off in spots anyway.

But no. I did not.

I did, however, manage to find a blog post and it shows the room at the mid-point of the last redo.

Here – go look at it. I’ll wait.

You’re back already? I know, my pictures weren’t great in those days. Whatever. Now that you’ve seen photos of the room let me tell you a few things that were different by the time we changed it again. For one, there was wallpaper. Also, we moved the green thing and the chair from Ikea into the guest room and a piano was against that wall instead. The bench that held my fiber had been moved upstairs to my craft room as had the yarn that was on the shelves. The floor was the same, the window was the same and the computer desk was the same.

As I have mentioned briefly already, we gave the piano away and we got Dale a laptop and that basically gave us an empty room to play with. We wanted to keep the shelving but we wanted to ditch that window so that we could put a small couch there without it having to be right in front of the window. And have I mentioned that this room is tiny? As in 8 feet by 10 feet tiny.

Okay, ready?

Here’s the shot of the room from the dining room doorway. Where you see that white table is where the computer desk used to be. And the wood paneled wall at the end is where the green thing and chair were in the post from 2006. Got it?

So, the window was removed and replaced by this custom (read: expensive) window. And it was worth every penny. It lets in beautiful morning light and both windows crank open. It’s got a perfect little windowsill for displaying seasonal things and more. And I love it.

That ugly yellow linoleum was covered by a very pretty and neutral berber carpet. We also got much needed new carpet in our living room and bedroom. Hooray!

The couch is from Lay Z Boy and we got it on a great sale they had this summer. As in, 33% off all furniture, even custom pieces, which this happened to be. Now. I am not one to be very picky about furniture. Every other piece we have has come from Jordan’s Furniture and has been selected from the showroom floor. But. I wanted a denim couch for this room. And denim furniture? Not very easy to come by unless you’re willing to spend $4000 on something from Pottery Barn. I might have even been tempted to do that if I could have found a piece small enough to fit in this room but apparently everyone who buys furniture at Pottery Barn lives in a house the size of, well, a barn. But I digress. My point is, the couch was on sale and I got it in denim and it’s l-shaped and that’s just what I wanted. We originally planned to put it right into that corner but for now I like it centered under the window. One one side of it is an end table from L.L. Bean and on the other is that white tray table piece that I got from Target.

The other thing I truly love about this room are the lights. Can I just take a moment and say, holy crap but lighting is expensive! These were 1/4 of the price of the ones I originally wanted and Dale still thought I was crazy. But really – just look at them and their silver-y vintage-y goodness.

I mean. C’mon.

The bookcase got updated with a coat of white paint and a complete culling of all books and other junk that had a tendency to accumulate there. I painted the baskets black and bought some nice black storage boxes for DVDs and photos and once we put everything back we found that we even had room for a few extras like a picture I took in Gettysburg and some other interesting pieces.

The artwork is sorely lacking at this point as all that is up is the sign about meeting me at the raw bar (anytime, just say the word!) and a Thanksgiving quilted wall hanging (which will be coming down in 2 weeks) and this window that we hung on the wall to the right of the doorway. This came from our attic and I saved it for just this purpose. My plan is to have a couple of my pictures printed up to hang behind the glass and change seasonally.

I owe so much to our awesome contractor, Billy, and our mad skilled electrician Shawn, and my very patient husband who put up with my plans and ideas and didn’t say a word when this went over budget a bit. We have found this to be an excellent spot to go to at the end of the day to share a drink and a snack and catch up. Or for taking a nap in the middle of the afternoon. Or as a place to hang out and read when the TV in the other room is on. And now that it’s finished it was all worth it — the darkness when the old window was pulled out and the hole was boarded up for weeks waiting on the custom window to arrive. The dust when the new ceiling was installed and the old walls were re-coated and sanded.  The hours of painting and sanding and shopping.

All worth it.

 

I bought that sign at an outdoor craft show in Hyannis in August of 2013. Tom & Anne were visiting us for the weekend and Dale had to work with the band so the 3 of us wandered around the Cape a bit and stumbled on this great show. I know I bought a few other things that day as well – a platter made from a Grey Goose bottle, a wooden bowl, some soap – the typical craft fair stuff. In this picture the sign is on the mantel of our Cape Cod rental house. You should also recognize the candle holder from last week, too.

Anyway, that sign is blue lettering on a piece of whitewashed wood and it’s not as brown as it looks in this photo. It’s very shabby chic and I had to have it the minute I saw it. Not only does it reference our favorite place to eat when we’re on vacation on Cape Cod (home of the ginormous lobster rolls), but it became the inspiration for the remodel of our den.

Seriously. I designed an entire room around this sign. What? Inspiration has to come from somewhere.

And I sort of promise that next time you see this sign it will be because I have written a post about the room re-do.