Emptying the nest

How Silly Me Memories Created a Cozy Guestroom

Shelley

Memories…ah…memories. They sure drive me to do silly things sometimes. Well, most of the time, it’s the case. Mr. can vouch for me. We celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary this past week. Trust me, he knows I can come up with some silly ideas. Like saving beer caps and wine corks for decades for projects that never materialized.

All of the wine corks and bottle caps sold on the first day!

But memories are unique and bring about opportunities to rekindle happy thoughts. Or should I say, more optimistic thoughts than the current situation? And those moments provide an opportunity to revive something old and reuse it in a new way sprinkled with memories.

When Mr. and I decided to adopt my mom’s old bedframe to use it in our catch-all crafting and treadmill room, it was because I wanted a space to house some of the items I have happy memories of and want to keep. Or simply that I couldn’t part with them. You know, because, someone created, painted, revived, etc. those items.

So the theme of the newly updated guestroom is cozy memories.

Mr. put in a labor of love to get the baby blue colored bed frame painted a neutral white. I lost count of how many coats he put on it. The bed frame was a custom-modified frame by my stepfather. Each layer Mr. took apart to get it to the point he could paint it revealed his ingenuity and creativity.

As the bed was taken apart, memories of when we moved the bed, cleared her house, and had it repainted so we could sell it to pay for her assisted living care crashed over my thoughts. Oh, sigh, that was a big job. The guy we hired to paint over the baby-blue room said it was a challenge…3 coats minimum.

Each stage added up to become another one for the holy-sh*t this was a b*tch of a project book – way harder than we thought it would be. Plus on top of that in the last two weeks – we recovered from COVID and then spent 4 days on another large thrift sale event.

Where I finally parted with and sold some more of those items that we had moved from my mom’s house in 2010! Including some of the jewelry that was hanging in the corner of her blue bedroom.

Where was I? Silly me…oh, yeah…the guestroom project. But first…I remembered that we remodeled it in 2017 too. To remove the lovely bright vibrant orange that our art student wanted for the room when she lived there in high school.

The room has been a rainbow of colors over the years. I made curtains for every stage and donated them all this year. I couldn’t put a price on them. I have happy memories of them to rekindle any thoughts about all the love we put into projects for the girls as they grew up.

Oh, my, gosh…that was a rabbit hole I went down. Sigh…back to the project. I wouldn’t call it dilapidated, definitely outdated though. And dirty from being in storage.

Please enjoy the review of the steps we Mr. took. Disassemble stages:

Work in progress stages:

Then it was done. And was Tizzie cat-approved, just needed a few cozy it up tweaks. While Mr. finished up the bed frame, I took care of the bedding and the curating of what photos would stay and what would go.

The bedding is all-natural cotton and neutral colored on purpose. I chose the artwork because the colors reminded me of all the years the girls’ rooms have been painted different colors.

There’s been pink, purple, neon green, white, dark blue, light blue, and of course bright orange. The orange Build-A-Bear was made by our youngest and it represents the orange color the room was last before being painted the neutral color it is today. The painting of the beach scene was made by our daughter from her memories of our first family trip to Jamaica. I had it hanging in my office at work when I was in the corporate world and not working from home. The animal paintings are from our youngest’s high school project. They were displayed at her graduation party. They have all the colors in them that bring back cozy memories. The pink lamp was decorated by our oldest when she was young as a project to decorate her room. I rescued it from the thrift sale. The tiny bear, I made out of gloves back when I was creative. And the cross-stitch bear was a gift I made for my mom. She LOVED bears.

When I asked Mr. to paint the mirror frame white, his expression spoke volumes. I quickly replied, “You know, I want to keep a memory of the baby blue, it’ll look great as is in front of the treadmill.” A nice anniversary gift from me to him, right?

Our first guests arrived and we’re cozy. We didn’t see them for hours!

Dessy arrived first.

Then Tizzie joined her. The big stuffed animal was on the beds when the kids were young.

All’s well that ends well. The cozy memories room is ready for the holidays when our kids will come home to visit again. I can’t wait to create more happy memories for us to treasure.

On a side note, I can’t leave this post without saying my heart aches for all of Florida. I had the fortune to visit Fort Myer’s beach in 2021 with my dear friend. I should get this photo framed and put it in our cozy memories room. The golden colors would go so well. As Floridians rebuild and revive their state, my prayers are with them all.

Post Inspiration – Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “me.” Find a word that starts with “me” or use the word “me” as the theme of your post. And Terri over at Sunday Stills – today’s word DILAPIDATED.

PS – Thanks for stopping by, it’s always great to hear from you. Are your family and friends from Florida safe and okay? What projects have you done that were sparked by ‘silly me’ memories?

Published by Shelley

Letting my quirk out one post at a time.

49 thoughts on “How Silly Me Memories Created a Cozy Guestroom”

  1. Another wonderful post, Shelley! I love your family photos. I can’t hardly believe how much stuff is in your garage sale, wow! Copper was so young and cute, sweet doggy.

    My sister’s winter home is in Fort Myers and took a direct hit. Her “home watcher” came back from the evacuation and found that her Tesla in the garage is trashed, but the roof is in perfect shape and there is mud in the house.

    Gladly, it can be put back together, amazing! My dad’s winter home further north in Tarpon Springs had no damage. This is why I stayed in Vegas but could have moved back down there in 2016…

    1. Hi John, thank you for sharing your kind feedback!

      Oh, my, sorry to hear about your sister’s home and her car! It’s a blessing that the roof is in good shape. It’s crazy how the storm spared and totaled all at the same time. Fort Myers was a beautiful place to visit. I’m sure they will rebuild the area as fast as possible. I’m glad to hear your dad’s place had no damage. My nephew lives near West Palm Beach – his place was spared but other places were affected by tornadoes. You were wise to stay in Vegas. I bet you were sad to remember the Vegas shooting from 5 years ago? My boss and his wife and friends were at that and they go to the memorial garden every year.

      1. Thank you, Shelley. I’m sure my sister will put the home back together as soon as possible. That car being all electric is probably toast. Salt water and batteries never mix well. I still love my adopted home but do miss Michigan, especially the snowmobiling!

        1. You’re welcome. I wish your sister well. You’re likely right about the electric car and batteries not mixing well.
          You’ll always love parts of Michigan. Heck you still have the Michigan accent when you talk, Michigan is in your blood!

          1. Thanks, I called sister a bit ago and she had so much good news that we were laughing with joy! Her Tesla is not destroyed! And the home is in much better condition than we had thought. It needs some serious interior cleaning but it is intact inside, and the roof if still solid! Her lawn and flowerbed maint. guy actually started cleaning and repairing the yard already! And, the woman who keeps an eye on the home over the summer months is helping where she can, and making shure that she is there when the tow truck comes for the Tesla. I said – wow, where did you find these wonderful people! So, the slow recovery has begun of course. What a story!

          2. Oh, my, goodness, that is WONDERFUL news. I’m so thankful you shared about the call with me. Your sister is very lucky. You’re right, there are such wonderful people coming together to help each other. The recovery will be slow, but faster than we may have first thought. What a story is right!!

        1. LOL – I have friends who live in Michigan and they all have a certain midwestern twang to their voices – when you’ve shared lives on Instagram, I can hear it in your voice. Of course, the other thing about my friends is they say they don’t have that accent and I do. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤣

  2. Good call on that baby blue accent mirror. I think I would have given you the same look. Good job at the thrift sales. I liked the progress pictures on the bed. I hope you guys have a nice easy week.

    1. Your empathy for Mr. is well-received. I can’t wait to hear him gloat after he reads the comments! 😉
      The thrift sale stuff will be done soon – the trailer is full of the items that didn’t sell and will be donated. We HAVE to part ways and fast before I change my mind and try to readopt items.
      Glad you enjoyed the progress pictures. Sometimes Mr. works so fast I miss important stages.
      I hope you have a great week too – enjoy the nice weather for getting outside stuff done before the snow flies!

  3. At first I thought that was your garage with all the stuff ready for sale, then I read more, LOL! Ambitious at best, Shelley! Kudos on thrifting items away from you–Marie Kondo would be proud. Your guest room is amazing (and I also have a build-a- (or 30 that I can’t part with. Your decor is perfect and the pics of you and your kids from BITD are precious. I enjoyed watching dilapidation turn into revival (like your blog’s name). Glad you are back to yourself and healthy–have a fab week!

    1. LOL – we have had a full garage sale like this one, but this one was a times 6 size compared to our garage ones of the past. My MIL was determined to have the sale, she’s very thankful that all of the stuff is going to new homes one way or another. And we will be donating the rest. I did keep thinking of Marie Kondo – “thank the item for its service and let it go”…ah…the panic feelings do come back in waves, but I’m getting better at letting go.
      Thank you for your encouraging words! I hope you have a great week too. I’m looking for LAVA things to photograph for next week’s Sunday Stills!

    1. Hi John, thank you!!! Now that the room is done, I’ve had to cover up the new bed with a large sheet so that the cats don’t mess it up. Reminds me of me having to clean up the room when the kids were little. Guess some ‘mom’ jobs are never done. 😉
      I hope you have a great week.

    2. PS – hugs to you as you wash windows and say goodbye again to memories of Katie’s nose prints. I had a hard time with that too!! 🤗🤗🤗

  6. I like your memories revealed by a prompt that took you down a fun path. All the stuff you sold! As much as I think Marie Kondo was overhyped, I do like her idea of blessing what you let go of, sending good vibes to the new owner. Gratitude is contagious.

    1. Thank you, Ally. All the stuff and all the letting go has lightened our loads in many ways. I hope our gratitude for the treasures we’ve sent off does help the new owners. I agree with you, Marie was overhyped. I did enjoy parts of her book. It’s a cute book – I kept it on my bookshelf because it’s so cute and I like the color of it. I think she’d approve of it being selected to remain in my house. 😉

  7. The room looks so great, and I love how you saved the pieces that mean the most. And good on ya for all your thrifting of those items you don’t need anymore. People will get good use out of the jewelry and everything else, I’m sure! Your pics of the girls are so cute–it’s like a 90s time capsule, so fun!

    1. Hi Rebecca! Thank you, we’re happy with the room and can’t wait for guests to arrive. We’re gathering a few more things to donate and then off to the donation sites we’ll be going. We need the space in our trailer for fall projects.
      I appreciate you getting a kick out of our 90s photos. Did you know…some of that clothing is coming back and I found jeans and tops to wear again! LOL! 😂🤣😁

    1. Thank you, Frank. Yes, the cats not only supervised the project, they gave their final approval. They’ve claimed the spot as theirs now.
      That orange was crazy bright. In retrospect, it seemed like a creative choice when she was in tune with her creativity chakras. I don’t think she did that on purpose, but looking at a chakra chart now it makes sense given her at that time in her life.

  9. Shelley, you have done an amazing job proving you can still have the memories without the excess baggage and only hanging on to those things that really make you happy. You have worked so hard to get to where you are now with your clutter and it looks great. If only I could be inspired and make progress like you. I liked the photos and marvel at the very boyish look of Copper!

    1. Thank you, Linda. Maybe we need to use the cold winter moments when we’re stuck in the house to challenge ourselves to conquer more clutter removal?
      Copper will always hold a place in our hearts, yours too – thank you for always enjoying photos of him!

      1. Well that sounds good on paper, but it never seems to happen. I assume I’ll do better when retired because then I won’t feel that I am using my precious down time to do things that don’t bring me joy. Unfortunately I agreed to no vacation since I worked from home and (supposedly) part-time when I returned to work – stupid of me. I told my boss this year, that cannot happen anymore as I need to step away from everything and just have a mental health day. I should have set parameters long ago.

        Yes, Copper, your little man and he does hold a place in my heart too as I know how much you loved him.

        1. Yes, everything sounds/looks good on paper. I hope you do get a mental health day! Part-time work still has its stressors. Take care of yourself.
          Copper was one special dog. 🥰🤗🥰

          1. I did in fact get it/take it Shelley … I would not have said “no” to today too. 🙂 We were busy today. But yes, I needed a mental health day for sure. This has been a long year in many ways. My boss is getting out of town for another week on Saturday.

            I never made it here to WP last night. A Canadian friend of mine called last night for Thanksgiving and I was on the phone all evening. I’m already a week behind in Reader and didn’t even answer the post comments from yesterday. Time goes by so quickly.

            I am trying to post this reply on your site – I don’t know what the problem is but I can’t access your site. I am down to two wireless bars – maybe that is why. Grrrr.

            I heard today that dogs sense when you have stress – I don’t doubt that. Copper was there for you with worries for your mom and beyond.

          2. Your reply did come through, finally. WP is definitely wonky right now. Lots of little things not working right.
            I hope you got to a place in Reader that you felt accomplished instead of behind.
            Dogs are amazing animals, I’ll always be fond of the time I had to share with Copper.
            Thanks for your persistence in getting your reply to go through.

          5. I need all the help I can get here on WP, especially catching up. After I go through comments, I aim to get two days of Reader done for sure. All that fresh air and walking I did today may take me away sooner. I was in bed by 9:30 p.m. last night … call me “Ms. Excitement”.

          7. Honest to God, my internet went out at about 9:15 or so and I didn’t reboot the laptop and instead went to bed, second night in a row for really early. My age is showing, but I prefer to think it was all the fresh air. 🙂

          9. I have seen me come home, especially if I never drove and got a chance to sit after a 5, 6 or 7-mile walk, but even if I went to Council Point Park and walked from here, walked around, through the ‘hood. Lots of fresh air and exercise and 10 minutes after sitting own at the computer, my eyes are heavy. Soak up all the sun you can – me too and will deal with life inside the four walls when the weather turns nasty.

          11. I pressed “send” too quickly. And in the “Comments” area of our site, why is the word “send” where you type? Maybe it is different for you?

            Yes, dogs are amazing animals. Their loyalty for those they love is wonderful to see.

            You are welcome, I felt badly it didn’t go thru the first time!

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