Happy New Year!

Hi friends,
Happy New Year! I hope that 2011 is ending on a positive, healthy note for you! I've got the morning to myself. Ah! Wonderfulness! I wanted to wish you a happy new year and share what I've been up to.

The Christmas tree is down and back up in the attic thanks for an awesome little elf who helped me pack up the ornaments (my 3 year old son Brayden) and my handy strong husband (40 year old Steve) who carried all of the boxes up to the attic. Our living room is back to itself sans Christmas tree:

You know how I like to spice things up! I moved the buffet piece from the eat-in kitchen to the living room but it needs some art work above it. I'm not crazy about the small lamp that I am reusing from Steve's home office but it'll do for now:

I found two very old black and white (really sepia) flower prints from Target up in the attic. I dusted them off and used two nail holes already in the wall to hang them. They're definitely not my favorite pieces of art but I think they'll work right now until I find something better. I am thinking I'd like to find one large art piece here to balance all of the white framed pictures on the adjacent wall.

I moved the wrought iron and glass Pottery Barn console table from the hallway to the eat-in kitchen (where the buffet was). I am still working on "staging" it- often I have to live with a piece for a few days to get the accessories "right" on it.

Now, the hallway has changed too. I took out that wrought iron and glass Pottery Barn console table and added an old rustic bench that was in the family room:

Now, I am so excited to share our next project with you. You might remember a post I did a few days ago about wanting our kids' stuff to be better organized:
http://cottagebluedesigns.blogspot.com/2011/12/organization-please.html

Well, my husband and I put our heads' together and came up with a solution! We're going to make an organizational zone for all of our kids' stuff (shoes, coats, backpacks, lunches, etc.) in our huge hall closet. We cleaned out the closet this week in prepartion for this project which we may be able to tackle in the next couple of days. I promise to share it with you once we've finished.

Here's the cleaned out closet in anticipation of our organization project. We plan on adding kid level hooks for coats/backpacks, a small shelf for kids' things, and baskets for the kids' shoes.

Thanks for joining me today. I wish you the very best in 2012. Now, I need to turn my laptop off, enjoy the quiet house and write some thank you notes on our screened in porch- it's a warm sunny day in North Carolina today:

Right now, it's just me and the pets who are enjoying the beautiful sunny day too:

Happy New Year and happy decorating & living-
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com

The Year in Review: Part 1

Hi friends,
A new year is so exciting. A time to reflect upon the past year and look fondly towards the upcoming year. As I reflect upon the past year, it's been a year of change for my household.

I resigned from my career in education with Fairfax County Public Schools in Fairfax, Virginia after almost 20 years of service.

I staged our sweet little brick Cape Cod one story home in Annandale, Virginia. We received 3 offers after being on the market less than one week.

We spent one weekend touring homes in the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina and made an offer on one house that was in a great neighborhood with awesome space. We've spent the last 9 months decorating our new home.

My daughter started kindergarten at our year round neighborhood elementary school. My son started preschool at a local Montessori preschool.

I joined the Math Solutions company (they're in partnership with Scholastic) as an educational  consultant specializing in elementary mathematics.

Here's our old sweet 1950s brick home in Annandale, Virginia that we renovated during the 5 years that we owned it:

This was our first home as a married couple. Our children were born here (well, not literally....Bryce came early while we were visiting my husband's family on HIS birthday in Charlotte, NC and Brayden was born at the nearby hospital). Steve worked on the landscaping a lot! Here's the backyard:

We put in the french doors and had the deck redone:



Our kids loved playing the backyard! We had many cookouts, get togethers, and birthday parties back there.

Let's move inside to the living room:



Dining room:

We renovated the kitchen:

We wish Matt and Penny who bought our old house the best of luck! It's a sweet charming house and they're a super cool couple! Stop back by my blog tomorrow and I'll show you more of our old house that I staged before selling.

Happy decorating & living,
Megan
megan@cottagebluedesigns.com