Home Made Microwavable Popcorn! {Yes, you read that right!}

As you are likely all starting to realize, I'm pretty cheap economical. I try to save where I can as most mommas do. Here's a little tip on saving money on microwaved popcorn... Make your OWN! Yep, you DID read that right! Here's what you need:

Brown paper bag {like what you used to take your lunch to school in}
popcorn kernels {I buy the uber cheap no name kind.}
Microwave.

That's it! Pour a layer of kernels into the brown paper bag {while the bag is standing up covering the rectangular bottom} then fold up the end a couple of times. Pop it on it's side in the microwave on the popcorn setting and viola! Home made microwaved popcorn without all the mess and cost of Oriville.

Enjoy!!

Living Room... Thoughts?

As you all know, we're giving some love to our "power-of-sale-fixer-upper." We came up with ideas for the family room, bought flooring, picked fabrics for curtians and are finally going to buy our paint this weekend! Buuuut, I had no idea what to do for our living room. Noda. Nothing. Zilch. Like I mentioned in my previous post, the living room and family room are connected by a large double size doorway that used to have french doors once upon a time. Since I'm on a serious time crunch, I decided tonight after The Hubs was out and kidlets were in bed, it was time to get some ideas!

After viewing thousands about a hundred pictures on google images, I think I've come up with some inspiration for our living room!! {Squeal!} It's not really something I would have normally been drawn too, but I did want blue incorporated into the main floor and when I saw the colours, I knew these were the ones!

Wait for it.........

Ta da!! This was the original picture that I saw and I LOVE IT!!! {EEK!!}Ok, so not all the crazy patterns, but the colours are exactly what I want! Here's another picture:

I really like how the colours mix. We also have a dark wood entertainment unit so when I saw this picture, I knew it would go with our current furniture. {Well, the entertainment unit we're keeping, everything else is going!}  

Ok, one more picture....

These are a bit more muted, but I still love it!

So that's all for tonight! What are your thoughts? I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! Now just to convince The Hubs.....

Family Room... Help!

So, over the past few weeks The Hubs and I have decided that it's time to tear out the nasty carpet in the living room {that we inherited when we moved in... we did have it professionally cleaned before we moved in so we know there's no lingering stuff under there... just looks gross.} Our family room is right next to the living room with a large doorway, which used to have french doors once upon a time, separating the two rooms. {See nasty, ugly, stained carpet pictured below. Oh, and my little H watching Aladdin. ;o)}

 

We finally found laminate flooring that we both liked and bought it today! {EEK!!} I had no idea what I wanted for the wall colours though and I had no thoughts on accent colours at all. Luckily Uppercase Living came to the rescue! They've recently featured some mustard & grey tones in their most recent catalogue and at first I thought it was terrible. Buuuut the more I browse the catty, the more I liked it! I found these pictures on google images and it has the colour scheme I'm looking to achieve, but the furniture isn't what I want.

After seeing these inspiring pictures, The Hubs, H, J and I went to fabricland to find some inspiration! Lo and behold, here's what I found:

The Hubs liked the fabric in the top picture, and I love the one on the bottom. So we took a sample of each to Rona and found some paint chips that will work. {Oh, and they are laying on top of our new flooring!!}

I have a few more that have some green tones and such in it, but you get the general idea. I have one more picture to show you before I move on to the "help" portion of this blog entry... Here's the sample fabric pieces with our current wall colour... {You can't really tell, but the current wall colour is a light yellow. Sort of a butter cup tone. It happens to go really well with the fabric sample that I like.}

My question is; Would you paint the walls yellow, grey or keep it the same?? We are thinking of painting the walls yellow because it will be really bright and warm. It also would be good with the kitchen for now since they family room is open directly to the kitchen and we are doing that room LAST!  I thought of painting the walls grey, but we both think it would bring a cold feeling into the room. {And we have two rooms that are already grey in the house - Hubs office and our bedroom is an earthy grey tone.}

Thoughts please!? Any and all suggestions welcome!!