{pretty, happy, funny, real} Master Bedroom Challenge Edition!

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Brought to you by Like Mother, Like Daughter

Today I am joining in Leila's master bedroom challenge!

This little cross stitch was a wedding gift. I love its simplicity. 

But, oh, what a week it's been! It has been utter chaos around the house, all because of something, or rather some things, I can barely see - fleas. We discovered them in our house last week, and since then it's been a whirl of vacuuming and hot water laundering and pest control and more laundering. And I had just started to implement Auntie Leila's laundry sorting system too! Then suddenly I was faced with the prospect of washing everything, all at once, as soon as possible. There are still piles of clean laundry on the dining room table, but now I feel I'm at least on the winning side of things.

The silver lining in all this cloudiness was that I had to empty practically everything out of our bedroom anyway, which meant I had a fresh slate to start with. Auntie Leila's challenge came just at the right time - a glimmer of hope and a bit of focus.

Here is the before, taken a few days ago, mid-chaos, gross lighting:

Floor cleared, rugs temporarily removed, random stuff piled on surfaces. 

Not a pretty sight. Not our usual bedding either. 

{pretty}

And now when I walk in, it's a little haven of calm in the storm. :)

(I wish I had a sunny day to take pictures, but it's all rain and grey and gloom outside today.)

A clean, made bed. I also brought in that chair to put next to my little bookcase. 

The room is still missing a few elements due to cleaning in progress - a large area rug, the bedskirt, some pretty extra pillows. But I took the opportunity to hang a few things on the walls! I've wanted to get that little cross stitch up for quite some time, and this was just the motivation to do it. I also hung one of my small moosehair tuftings from up north.

The curtains are washed - but I can't decide whether to hem them up to the windowsill level (like in the before picture) or hem them to the floor. All I've got to work with right now is that tension rod to hold them up. 

By the way, I painted the bedroom floor this summer! It was a deep pink before, and latex. Now it's oil. I don't even remember what this colour is called; it's one of the historic colours from Benjamin Moore. (It looks different in real life. So do the walls, I think.) It was a bit of a fiasco because I didn't know what I was doing, but it turned out ok in the end!

Dresser cleared off! The dressers, which match, were got in two different provinces! This one we bought when we moved to PEI because it matched the one we already had, picked off a curb in Ontario! 

Micah's dresser, but my things on top of it. (Good thing he doesn't have too many things.) Micah's night table has his Grundig radio and a picture of us taken the day we were engaged, along with various electronic cords. 

I think the overall effect is quite pretty now, and I can tell you, it's also pretty clean!

{happy}

This week of clearing out and cleaning up gave me a good opportunity to decide what little touches I wanted to have in our room. I focused on the things which tell part of the story of "us," and also decided to bring in some of my treasures from the Northwest Territories, where I grew up and where my family still lives. I know they are only things, but they bring happiness because of what they represent.

This bird is actually a jewelry box! Lace from one of my sisters, I think from Italy? 

Wine bottle from our engagement picnic, picture of wild roses from up north, and a shell with dried lavender from along Hadrian's Wall and a beaded hair elastic also from up north.

My birchbark containers - one with porcupine quill detail and the other with
moosehair tufting, both from Fort Smith. 

Why did I take this blurry picture?? Oh yes, I was trying to focus on the picture in the mirror! 

Now when I look around I am reminded of who we are and where we've come from. Hopefully this room can be a sanctuary, a place of peace from which to go on together where God leads.

{funny}

Someone wanted to be in the pictures! This little one loves jumping on our bed.

{real}

I had a small stroke of genius which falls into the beautiful and useful category. One of the things living on the dresser before was a box of nursing pads. I had the great idea to put them into one of my birchbark baskets! So simple, so nice, so useful.

So, there you have it. Life is not quite back to normal yet, but our room feels lovely, and that makes a big difference! Thanks for the challenge!



~lg