Busy weekend

Sorry no posts this weekend! I took five 15 and 16 year olds to the Revolve Tour at the Rose Garden. It was a Friday night/Saturday event....and four of them spent the night at my house! Needless to say I didn't get much sleep or have time to tell you about our projects and how they are coming along.

Mark finished the rain drain thing at the back of the house (and the flashing too)- woo hoo!  So, we'll see how that works the next time the big rains come, which in Oregon will probably be pretty soon.

We did manage to go to Ikea on Sunday afternoon and bought a few things:

• Three 6ft long white Lack shelves
• 1 set of dishes (white)
• 1 set of white sheer curtains (to finish off the front living room windows)
• 1 lamp shade
• and some other small things

One mini DIY project I did recently was take a left-behind gold floor lamp with a swing arm and spray paint it black.  I needed a shade for it, so Ikea to the rescue, I scored this one for a few bucks.  Fun and fabulously functional!!

One of the things I wanted for my living room was shelves on the back wall - and I got them!  We put them up on Sunday evening.  Here's Mark working away...

We hung them sort of askew. We didn't really want them in one neat row.

So, now I have shelves!! And now I don't know how to arrange my stuff on them.  :o(  Any suggestions? Run across any blogs on how to make your shelves look cute?  I plan on getting prints of pictures I've taken over the years and having them on these along with books, but for now, it's just my books.

Now for my so-far budget breakdown:

My previous total for the recycling - living room - basement projects was $60.  This week, I'm adding to that $90 for the shelves, $9 for the curtains, and $10 for the lamp shade (even though this project isn't included in my living room, it is in my living room, so it'll count). That brings me to ... $169!!  My last big expense is going to be curtains for the living room. I haven't found any winners yet, but the search continues!

Side note: I bought a set of plain dishes at Ikea because the set we got for our wedding (which I love) has not fared so well. We only have three dinner plates left (out of 8 or 6), and one of those is cracked.  If I, like wanted to have people over for dinner, I was limited to one guest.  Now I have my three plates PLUS 6 more (6 salad plates and 6 cereal bowls too)!

 
Dinner party, anyone?