I took my husband's old office area which was unbelievably bare and blah
and finally turned it into a guest room! (Come on over friends and family! No more sleeper sofa!)
I mainly used things we had around the house. I did buy those botanical prints above the bed. They were on clearance at Target for $12 each. They have a dark wood frame that is sanded a little to reveal the red paint underneath. I love that look. The room is not anything spectacular, it doesn't even reveal my own personal taste (the gold bedspread was bought 6 or 7 years ago). But it is a big improvement just in the fact that it houses a bed! THANK YOU Mimi and Papa for surprising us with the Temperpedic mattress for our bedroom! And now you get to reap the rewards too when you come to our house and have a guest room with a bed!
I also framed the art from our art wall. Before, the artwork was just taped to the wall. This is the wall we see at the bottom of the steps to the basement when we are walking into the garage, our school room, or our guest room. The kids' work always makes me smile, especially now that it is displayed a little better.
I also scratched my obsessively-anti-clutter itch and worked on organizing a few closets. They weren't awful to begin with. But a little sprucing will help me get to stuff quicker. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I can not find something and go out and buy it, only to find it later in the midst of clutter. What a waste.
Lydie and I worked on her toys together earlier in the week. She previously just had big baskets for toy dumping. But now that Polly Pockets and Barbies have entered the scene, the big baskets have become our enemies. They swallow up and consume Barbie shoes and the like. Andy got a little nauseous at how excited she was over her new system. The apple certainly does not fall far from the tree.
This stuff might look like a lot. But I spent only a small fraction of Saturday working around the house. It is such a blessing to have a weekend to get rejuvinated! By 10PM on Friday I was ready for everyone to come home. But I stuck it out until Sunday evening and I think it really filled my tank. Blessings to those who also find yourself needing a break! I read this prayer by Ruth Bell Graham that struck a chord with me. It's so, so sweet.
"God, bless all young Mothers at the end of the day,
Kneeling wearily with each small one to hear them pray.
Too tired to rise when done, and yet they do
Longing simply to sleep one whole night through.
Too tired to sleep, too tired to pray...
God, bless all young mothers at close of day."
The foyer leads to the master on the right. Our "master" bathroom is pretty tiny. Cozy, but cute. 
Our bedroom:
*The view from my bed: my birthday present from Andy. We got it on ebay for $35 several years ago and he remembered the canvas and had it framed for me. The foot board is about four feet from the wall, even though it looks like it is against the wall in this picture.*
From the foyer, the kitchen is straight ahead: 
*Twirling girl not included in the sale of the house*
The family room is on the left of the foyer:
And behind the family room is the dining room. We have been in this house three and a half years and this room has changed five or six times. It was a dining room, play room, dining room again, school room, and now back to dining room. It has been four colors!
And this is our pantry/art closet/laundry room, all labeled and neat. This order is a miracle!:
Let's go upstairs to the kids' domain. 
Upstairs we have two bedrooms. The boys' space room on the left. This bedroom is one of the few rooms in the house that I would describe as big. I will miss this space for the boys!
And Lydie's pink room (my favorite room in the house):
And the there is the kids' bathroom. We painted the walls and cabinets the same color as our master bathroom. The shower curtain was from our last house, and works well with both pink and blue to represent all three kids! All of the wall decor is from Toot's nursery. I kept it all because during that very rough time in our lives when he was born, his nursery was a place of happy, sweet memories. He was the sweetest, most beautiful baby! In fact, when we renovated this bathroom a couple of months ago, we spent under $50- the cost to replace the light and bath mat.
And the last floor is the basement. One of our art displays is at the bottom of the steps. 
Here's a picture looking up from the basement. We keep our timeline and our baskets of shoes in here.
And downstairs we have our school room:
And a bedroom (or office, in this case). It is plain and pretty ugly, but at least it has been cleaned out. It had become pretty junky. We are hoping to find a day bed to put in here soon. Maybe I'll fix it up a little if I have time. If we were staying here, I would paint this room a neutral color and fill the walls with color. Then I would move all of my craft stuff down here and take over!
Thanks for touring the house!! Hopefully we will feel just as comfortable in the next one!
In another corner, our Playmobil nativity set. Sorry, I didn't set it up for you all.
Another corner...these angels came from one of my wedding showers. My sorority sisters gave me a Christmas wedding shower over eleven years ago. The tall angel was my favorite gift from my dear friend, Anna. I still enjoy it every year.
And one more corner. That Christmas tree cookie jar came from the same shower.
