Meta Monday: Indy's Room Take 2

Warning!  Photo heavy!
It's been AGES since I participated in a Metamorphosis Monday. AGES! Mostly because I had nothing morphed. Sad me. Today though, I have something to show you! Way back in March 2009, I showed you Indy's room as a Morph. 

His room went from this:

To this:

 It was a cute pirate themed room and he loved it.  For a while.  About a year later though, he told me he wanted something more grown up.  After I wept for about an hour over the thought of my sweet little boy growing up, I asked what he had in mind.  He said he needed something that said "ADVENTURE and EXPLORATION."  This is my son.  Indy had loads of stuff he'd collected from our various travels and I knew I could do something if I put my mind to it.  He wanted the walls painted a "desert brown" but I told him repainting was not an option.  He sighed heavily, and said he could "live with the blue" (he's very magnanimous that way).  I found a duvet cover and light fixture at IKEA (of course) that said action/adventure/desert and started pulling posters, post cards and other odds and ends and set to work.  It was actually not expensive at all considering we had most of it.  It was merely a matter of putting it together.  When I was (mostly) done, it looked like this:

After our big world cruise, he had collected even more stuff, so I had to add it to the wall.  This is what hangs on the wall by his bed today:

And he got a million more postcards.  He LOVES postcards and so do we because they are inexpensive and easy to pack.  After our cruise I had to add another row of twine to accommodate his expanding collection.  This is a great way to display photos or postcards for practically nothing.  I put nails in the wall (4 small nails per row, spaced evenly), tied some twine to them,  grabbed a bunch of mini clothes pins and started adding things.  It holds postcards, photos, entry tickets, drink coasters, and other bits and bobs.   He loves to lay in bed and look at it.  The compass above is a wall sticker I had made of  some clipart for about $10.  There is another (pictured above) on the entry wall that has N,S,E,W.

  I

I love the big map.  I got it from Allposters.com for about $15.  James Bond found the Phonetician wall hanging for FREE and we had the smaller maps from our trips to Paris (they are street maps).  The EXPLORE letters I printed off  in the "Indiana Jones" font (SF Fedora) and cut out of travel scrapbook paper.  Easy peasy.

The 3 posters on the right side closet door were actually advertisements left in our cabin on our cruise.  The back side advertises the Disney Vacation Club and most people threw them in the trash, but we thought they'd be perfect in a Indy's room, so we carefully packed them in the bottom of our suitcase to bring home.
FREE! 

What adventure/explorer room would be complete without a shelf full of antiquities and curiosities?  These are some of Indy's most treasured possessions.  The Mickey and Mini banks are almost antique.  I got them in Disney World when I was about 3 and for whatever reason kept them.  Indy adores them and they are filled with his favorite thing: money!

And of course we couldn't leave out the most important items for any Indiana Jones wanna be:

I don't have a photo of it (and it really needs vacuuming or I'd go take one now), but we found and awesome zebra print rug to put by his bed.  He says his room is "super cool" and spends a good part of every day having adventures.

I hope you enjoyed the meta and will hop over to Susan's to see all the other wonderful links.

Also linking to:

Ta-da! Meta-ME!

Okay, so I can join in on meta Monday (cause I love ‘em), I’m revealing my personal meta.

This is me around Jan.

And this is me after my haircut!  Ta-da!    I chopped about 8” of hair off (it looks longer because of all the layering).  I’m still getting used to it, but I’m really liking how quickly I can do my hair in the mornings. 

 

Thanks for stopping by.  What do you think?  Am I crazy?

Meta Monday: Great Room

It’s been a few weeks since I posted a metamorphosis. Susan hosts it every Monday and I love to see what others are up to. I’ve been planning this one for a long time, but haven’t because I didn’t feel it was finished/good enough/blah, blah, blah. I had a Nester inspired epiphany though and took her motto, It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful to heart and decided it will never really be done because I’m always changing something, and so what if it’s not perfect. I like it and feel comfortable, so that should be good enough. Right?

You may remember this photo. I showed it to way pack in Nov when we first moved in. It was a big, boring, messy room.

Oh, it hurts me just to look at it! The walls! The light fixture (which I showed you in a previous morph)! The…well, everything! Ack!

Have a look at it today:

Isn’t that better? We painted the walls a cappuccino brown, changed the light fixture, added rugs and art, oh, and furniture! I was so happy to have my furniture! Let’s take a look around, shall we?

This book case is just to left in the previous photo. It’s technically part of the dining area, but I like the book shelf there. If you look closely, on the top shelf, second cubby from the left, you can see the sign I won on Nester’s Small Words give-away. I love it! Notice Indy’s little violin case over in the corner? :) It’s so cute! The artwork on the top of the bookcase was done by Indy when he was 3. It’s a triceratops. He is so proud that we framed it and display it. He shows it to everyone. The door to the right, leads back to the bathroom, Indy’s room and the school room.

Here’s out entertainment center. We had to replace the two side pieces that the movers put the forklift through. You can tell what I was watching while I took the photos.

Here are some close ups of a few of the shelves. In order, we have stuff that was brought back (legally) from Iraq, a Paris photo I took with books and mini Eiffel towers, my cloche and another photo I took in Paris with various other chachkies.

This is the Living Room half of the room. I adore my sofa. It’s so comfy. We’re planning on getting an overstuffed leather chair to replace the small chair, but that will come later. I’m also going to recover the pillows, but another time. The cabinet in the back used to be in Indy’s nursery, but we’ve repurposed it to hold DVD’s.

This is the dining room half. Don’t look at my windows. They are filthy! Stupid pollen. The table is also a previous morph. The bench is one of my favorite pieces. When we have people over, we can pull it up to the table for lots of seating.

I would have turned on the overhead light, but just before I took the photos a bulb blew and I don’t have any replacements. D’oh!

So, that concludes this weeks meta. I hope you enjoyed having a look at where I spend much of my time.

Meta Monday: It's all about the lighting

It's Meta Monday again! Are you as excited as I am? You know how I love to see all the metamorphoses (metamorphi?). Mine is nothing spectacular, but it makes me ridiculously happy.

I'm sure you wonder where the gazillions of dollars in the military budget go each year. Let me assure you, it's not on decor for military housing. See our fancy light fixtures circa 1971?



Oh yeah, wouldn't you love to look at this every meal? Oh, it's so hideous. It pains me. Pains me. The light is glaring and hideous.


Well, look at it now! Isn't it beautiful?!?!?! It took M about 15 minutes to put it up.


So pretty, so whimsical. So much better!


I bought it at a local chain store called Poco for 68 Euro, which is about $85. It can be used back in the US too. All we have to do it put 110v bulbs in it (we use 230v bulbs). For less than $100 and 15 minutes of work the whole look of the room changed. And it makes me ridiculously happy.

Meta Monday: Indy's Room

Oh, that's right! Monday again! Monday is fast becoming one of my favorite days. Why? Cause it's Meta Monday and I get to look at all the cool things people do to change stuff up. Wooohooo! Also, today I'll be joining in on Blue Monday.

For my metamorphosis, we're going to look at Indy's room. I know you think it'll be all Incan ruins and temples and whatnot, but he decided he wanted a pirate themed room. Theme, not pattern. Darlene wrote a great post about theme v. patterns here. Don't check it out yet! I have to show you Indy's room first!


This is what it looked like when we moved in, and before we got our furniture. Large, but ridiculously dull. And WHITE. I hate white walls. They are the enemy.



Before our household goods arrived, we painted it Indy's favorite color: BLUE. The boy loves him some blue. Here's the same view as the first pic. Quite a difference, eh?



We left him a lot of open space for play. Play, play, play!


I still have a few things to do, but figured it was good enough to post. I plan on putting his monogram above the ragamuffin garland, but just haven't found the time yet.

Here's a closeup of two of the projects I found over at The Nester.

Ragamuffin Garland:



And the memo board (which now has way more stuff on it):


Indy is actually in the Master Bed, but the room we are in is slightly bigger (though with fewer closets). We chose to put him in the Master because the room we are in is right next to the front door (you've seen the door to it in my Entry Meta) and we just weren't comfortable with the thought of him being by the front door and us being at the back of the apartment. Plus, he doesn't hear the door open and close when M goes to PT at 6am. Thanks for stopping by and make sure you check out all the other metas.

PS. It's not blue, but PINK. Barbie turns 50 today! I so loved my Barbies as a little girl. Many an hour were spent imagining with Barbie, Ken, Skipper and all their friends. Barbie gets a lot of bad press, but she only brings up happy memories for me. Happy Birthday Barbie!