Getting My Groove Back

Have you felt this way?  Once all the Christmas decorations were put away & all the surfaces cleaned & polished, I didn't know where to start.  Back in September when I started thinking about Fall and the upcoming holidays, my mind was racing with ideas.  Not so much now.  Sound familiar?  Guess what I did to get the juices flowing again?  I went to blogland and let my wonderful sister bloggers inspire me.  So thank you to all of you who have been steaming on ahead into 2011 without a single pause.  You've inspired and motivated me and now feel that I'm getting my groove back.  Listing our house is right around the corner, so I truly didn't have time to dawdle.

One of the areas I really wanted to make some changes to is our dining room.  I'm not talking paint here.  We still like the color and it is in very good shape.  I just felt it needed some rearranging.  Just so you know where items were when I started, I'm including a couple of older photos.  We've had this little buffet in this spot since we purchased it about three years ago.  It never bothered us that it took up quite a bit of the walkway out to the sunroom, but we thought it should look more open to a prospective buyer.

And I don't know if you can tell from this photo, but the china cabinet is at an angle to the wall.  This, too, has been like this since we remodeled our kitchen and dining room.  It worked fine, but it kept the table from ever being exactly centered under our delightful fan-light.  That bugged the heck out of me, but the thought of unloading the entire cabinet to move it was too disturbing to think about!  It's a super heavy thing.

Well, a couple of days ago, my automatic lighting gizmo that was hooked up behind (wouldn't you know) the china cabinet, died.  We are talking lights in each end display, one over the top shelf & lights across the top that were all tied into my little push-button thingy.  I'm here to tell you that was a big dark hole over in that corner even with the mirrors in the cabinet.  So I had to come up with a plan and decided now was the time to address the walkway issue and centering the table issue.  I plunged right in (well, after a g'zillion cups of coffee) and unloaded the massive thing and cleaned all the nooks and crannies, including lots of dust-bunnies that had collected back in the corner.  Also found a bunch of Abby's toys -- she was happy!  I hooked up a new automatic lighting gizmo & began the process of re-dressing the cabinet.  More on that later.  While I was all caffeinated, I decided to move the buffet as well.  It was pretty easy, thank goodness.

So here are a few snaps of the new arrangement.  What do you think?

This is exactly the openness I wanted to create.

Now about re-dressing the china cabinet.  I decided it was time to give it a completely new look, at least in the open, center area.  The only things that stayed are my inlaws' anniversary clock (I treasure this) & the hydrangea arrangement.  I was kind of going for a "green" look but didn't have quite enough green items, so had to throw in the sunflower plate & pitcher.  Hey, they have green leaves!  I like that it's not as formal as it has been in the past.

This little bird plate is from Pier 1 ($5).  I have a red one, too.  My plan is to get 4 more, to have a total of 2 greens, 2 reds & 2 yellows.  They are just so cute.  All the other green items are either from GW, JoAnnes' or Marshall's that I already had.  I didn't buy anything for this new look, woohoo!

I love that the table is now better situated.  The tablerunner is from Pier 1 before Christmas -- on sale for less than $9.  The beading on each end is so nice.

Yes, here is an empty bowl.  This was an old, dirty, yucky bowl that has been sitting out in the garden shed for the longest time.  I think we got it at a garage sale at least ten years ago.  I was going to toss it, but told The Man I would kind of like to try cleaning it up and staining it.  The Man actually believes that I don't know how to paint, and we are going to continue this line of thinking.  Shh, don't tell!   He went to work and this is the end result.  I just love it.  I would really like to put something in it, but haven't decided what to do at this time.  Some ideas are beginning to formulate, but I'd love any suggestions.   

One more look across the room toward the sunroom.

Guess that about wraps up my dining room adventures.  Hope you enjoyed taking a look and please come back soon.

CAS

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