I’ve been searching high and low on the internet for a nice simple ceiling medallion. Why? Well, in our house a ceiling fan was installed in the guest room (I’m guessing in the 70’s because it has black blades and gold trim). When the ceiling fan was installed, someone cut a square in the ceiling. It’s probably 1′x1′. And it’s not just a square, but a box really. It goes about 1′ into the ceiling. So, when you look at the ceiling fan, the pole that would normally go into the ceiling actually goes into this large box. It seems…unclean and rudimentary. So, we could either drywall up the hole (pain) - or add a ceiling medallion when we get a new fan. However, I’ve been unable to find a ceiling medallion that doesn’t look victorian or like something King Henry the VIII would have had in his castle.

But, today, I was looking at design*sponge and apparently the author has been searching for ceiling medallions as well. She posted a great site, that I thought I’d share (also, it’ll help me remember the website location when I’m ready to buy one): Architectural Depot . They have some great simple ceiling medallions.

My parents are visiting this weekend from Nebraska. My mom is an amazing seamstress and made these Roman Blinds for our Kitchen. It took many hours to install them (it seriously required a lot of patience so I’m glad they were also here to install them, because my patience would not have lasted as long as theirs).

Here’s a picture of mom and dad putting in the first Roman Blind:


Here’s a picture of the entire set of five. I think they’re gorgeous and really make the entire kitchen:


My mom did an AMAZING job of matching the Roman Blinds to the kitchen tile, when all she had to go on were some web pictures and my descriptions:

As you are probably aware, we’ve been going back and forth about paint colors for the house. However, we had finally agreed we like Durango, by Benjamin Moore. So, now we have more input because my parents are here. They also agree on the Durango color, and helped us select some swatches for the trim. We now have a trim color we like, Copley Gray. And a color for under the eaves, Rockport Gray. We’re going to sample them on a side of the garage. We were trying to pick greens, but they were all too green…these colors are all leaning toward a brownish/green with a gray overtone. Remember, we have a dark red roof and mahogany house:

Here is the before and after photo (although in the after photo I still need to paint the trim, caulk the toilet, and as I mentioned in my previous post, figure out what that leak is all about!) You can see in the before picture that it was almost impossible to get the floor to look clean…it had an odd cream/yellow tint, especially near the edges.

Okay, we’re getting further in projects, but not taking pictures, because I’ve apparently lost the digital camera. I know it was in the corner of the bedroom…where has it gone? My poor husband, how many times in his life will he hear: “Have you seen ____?”

Onto the status of a few projects: 1) Eric put the baseboard in the bathroom for me yesterday. Again, I’d take a picture and post it, but…well you know. The current problem–when I was ripping out the baseboard I pulled a bit too hard, and kinda yanked the pipe that goes into the wall. Uh, it’s got a drip now. I hope we don’t have to take out the toilet as a result. 2) I’m continuing in the saga of painting the trim in the kitchen. I want to have it done within the next 24 hours, ‘cause my parents arrive in 3 hours, and my mom is going to bring the new Roman blinds, and of course I want her to see them up while she’s here. She’s worked so hard on them, and I’m excited to put them up and also to have some privacy in the kitchen. They are going to be grand! Again, the camera had better turn up so I can post the photos. 3) Eric has begun trimming back bushes in preparation for landscaping the front yard. I’m very excited to work with Stone & Cobble on this project. Where is our state tax refund? We need it to buy some rock and pavers. I e-filed two weeks ago.