Settling In - and a Giveaway!

We are starting to settle in here in Montana. I finally got to do a big grocery shopping trip yesterday (with two toddlers in tow, oh the joys!) and was a just a little bit shell shocked at the prices. It's also a little bit traumatic to be paying for fruit from California at more than twice the price I'm used to paying in California. Let me just tell you, I have taken oranges for granted my whole life.

I haven't had much time for decorating yet as are still getting furniture set up and organized - our living room is kind of a small, odd shape so the couches aren't fitting quite how I'd like them. The coolest part of our living room is this awesome fire place with a mantle and built in book shelves on both sides and a large space for a poster or picture highlighted by recessed lighting.

We haven't decided yet what to put up here. An option is to get Ed's reproduction vintage Disneyland poster framed and put up . . . it's of the original submarine ride (the plan is to get posters of all our favorite old school rides.) On the other hand it would be cool to have the mantle area free for holiday decorating, there are always cool mantle linkys around the net. But honestly, am I that on top of life? More likely I'd have St. Patrick's decorations still up in July. I also think it would be cool to have the vintage Disney posters up in Ed's office at church, so I am really torn.

The space is mocking me with it's blankness . . . I am sure we will feel more settled in once we've got stuff up on the walls.

Decorating a new place can be fun and intimidating all at the same time . . . who am I kidding, decorating a place you've been in for years can be just as intimidating! Are you doing any decorating? Maybe you need to breathe some life into an old room or add a new fun gadget to your kitchen? Well I bet you'd love to win $25 to CSN Stores to help out! CSN Stores is letting me give away a $25 gift code to one lucky reader and it's easy peasy to win!

Just leave me a comment on this post telling me what you would buy from CSN Stores (they have over 200 online stores!) if you won - and if you have any suggestions for above the fireplace you can hit me with those as well!

That's it! I told you it would be easy peasy!

If you'd like extra entries here are a few (please leave a comment for each entry).

1. Follow my blog.

2. Follow me on Twitter.

3. Follow CSN Stores on Twitter.

4. Tweet about this giveaway, please include a link to this post and @narniamum and @CSNStores in your tweet - or you can copy and paste this: Win $25 to @CSNStores - over 200 online stores to choose from! #giveaway on @narniamum http://bit.ly/fcH9AE

5. Comment on another one of my blog posts.

This giveaway will remain open until Wednesday, March 23rd at 7pm Mountain Time and is open to residents of the US and Canada. Thanks for entering!

This giveaway is now closed. Thanks!

Church Nursery Redux - Part the Third

The church nursery redecorating extravaganza is chugging merrily along . . .

And by merrily I mean me on a ladder and Ed on a chair with two screaming toddlers thrashing around on the floor beneath us . . .

Ah, good times.

I've been so excited to get these up on the nursery walls, are they not awesome?

Vinyl polkadots in teal, green, light blue, and white. They are so pretty on the grey walls!

We put them up on the top half of the wall (leaving room for the blinds, mirror, and several other items that need to go up on the walls) and I think they are fab-u-lous!

I ordered them from Right on the Walls. They have some really neat vinyl wall art, including great shapes like the Outlined and Solid Polkadots we put up.

The bathroom has also been painted (pictures to come soon) and I'm getting another sheet of white polkadots to go up in the bathroom, and I think we will get some more white ones to fill out the nursery walls as well.

So what do you think? Have you ever used vinyl wall art? So far I am really pleased with it!

Church Nursery Redux - Part the Second

If you didn't get to see the adorable bear wallpaper we are replacing in our church nursery, make sure to check out my Church Nursery Redux - Part the First post. I would really, really hate for you to miss out on the privilege of seeing the rollerblading bears.

After we steamed and scraped off the wallpaper we discovered large portions of damage on the walls, so we had someone come into re-plaster the walls.

Then several ladies and I went into prime and here is what happened:

Oh.

My.

Sweet.

Tea.

As soon as we primed, everywhere the wall was repaired the plaster started bubbling up. It was so not pretty. I may have cried.

After repairing the plaster (again), we were so blessed to have some professional painters come in and put up the paints I had already purchased. There is no way we could have done this great a job.

Here is the new color of the nursery:

Yes, it is grey (and fyi I will always use the British spelling of grey because Grey happens to bemy Mom's maiden name).

In fact, it is two tones of grey, a slightly darker on top of the chair rail (which is a really bright, clean white), and a lighter below. If I was a home decor blogger, which I am so obviously not, here is where I would tell you the name of the colors . . . um, I got the paint at Lowe's, they;re Olympic colors and I picked them out on the fly . . . that's the best I've got folks.

The main design challenge in the nursery is the purple carpet - the other design challenge is the horribly dark wood ceiling and doors that I am apparently not allowed to touch, but I digress. I was excited to use the grey as a neutral that would work with the purple/mauve carpet. I got a little bit of feedback before the paint went up that it would look green next to the carpet, and I am pleased to report that it does not.

So, why the darker on top and the lighter on the bottom? There is a method behind my madness! Stay tuned for Church Nursery Redux - Part the Third coming in just a few days!

Church Nursery Redux - Part the First

Let me introduce you to our church nursery . . .

Actually, this is only the "toddler" portion of the church nursery. It actually consists of this toddler nursery, a baby nursery (which is rarely used), a bathroom (located between the two nursery rooms) and a cry room which is upstairs in the "choir loft" section of the sanctuary. All of these areas fall under my jurisdiction as "Nursery Coordinator." Nursery Coordinator is basically a fancy title for "she who does the nursery schedule."

What seems like ages ago I submitted a proposal to the property committee to update the decor in the nurseries and cry room. These little bears are cute, but they are a bit stuck in 1993. We finally got approved, and have money in hand, so we have started work!

Unfortunately, when the wallpaper got steamed off, it revealed some problems with the dry wall, so we are on hold while we get the toddler nursery re-plastered. I am excited by the designs I have planned (working with that purple carpet is kind of a fun design challenge!), and I hope I will be able to share some awesome pictures with you soon!