It's true...

At least that is what I will continue to tell Kevin! I knew when I saw that stamp in a local store a few years ago I had to get it. I get tired of constantly having to repeat myself. Now I can just stamp it on to everything he looks at! OK OK, I am really not that narcissistic and obnoxious, I swear, but yesterday I could have taken that stamp and stamped it all over Kevin AND his friend Joe! Why can't men sometimes admit that when it comes to things like moving furniture and other "heavy duty" type tasks, they do NOT automatically know what they are doing just because they are of the male persuasion?!

We have this little den/office type room on the main floor of our home. Kevin has a lot of sports memorabilia that he has collected over the years and I will admit I have resisted it being displayed in the house. But in all the years we have been together he has always been so good about letting me make pretty much all of the design decisions in our homes. I realized the den is the perfect place for his sports stuff. After all, I have an entire room dedicated to crafts so he should have his sports room. And luckily, the majority of his sports stuff is Red Sox and Patriots and thus red and blue are the prominent colors. I can live with that. I love red and blue. So over the past couple months we have been bringing out pieces of his collection and adding it to the room. It is definitely a work in progress. The room will need new valances over the windows, a new throw rug, and some other decorative things to tie in with the sports theme. We are also in desperate need f a new computer desk to replace the monstrosity we have in here now. I think when we can find that the room will start to come together quicker.

We also have a TV in here housed in the old entertainment center we used to have in the living room of the townhouse we lived in. And because of the TV we needed some seating. What we ended up with when we moved in to this house was a butt ugly brown barcalounger. Even though it was purchased brand new by my in-law's (God love 'em!) it looked straight out of the 1950's! Seriously I thought it should have come with it's own 80 year old man rocking away in it! Oh that chair made me miserable! Once we decided to go with the sports theme, however, a light went off in my head! The blue chair and a half!!! This wonderful chair, that was once part of the living room set we had in the living room in our townhouse has been languishing away in our basement for almost six years. We have both always loved this chair, but when we moved here I abandoned using blue in the rooms. And the living room of our townhouse was very bright and sunny so the blue furniture we had faded quite a bit. I was still determined to have it replace the barcalounger in the den, though. And you know what? Even faded it looks great! It goes with that casual sports feel. And it can always be slipcovered if I ever feel the need for that. I have some Red Sox and Patriots fleece that I had planned to use to make a no-sew fleece blanket. As soon as I get around to that I can drape it over the back of chair. In the meantime I know I have a red blanket somewhere that I can also use.

~* Our old favorite chair. The sports pillows are perfect for it! *~

This long story about chairs brings me to why I almost stamped Kevin and Joe from head to toe yesterday. They were tasked with moving the chair from the basement up to the den. As you can see, it is a big chair. And my 1950's era house has an awkward, not all that wide, stairway down to the basement. Still, I knew it would work. It got down there, it could get back up. So the two of them go down to get the chair. And I am waiting. And waiting. And I hear grunting and muttering. Then the grunting gets louder and so does the muttering. Then comes the cussing! Oh boy...

So I go downstairs to find the two of them standing there glaring at me claiming it was impossible to get that chair upstairs (such drama queens...)! And I was like, ARE YOU FREAKIN KIDDING ME?!? It was completely obvious to me (and let me tell ya, I don't do a whole lot of heavy lifting!!!) what they would need to do to get it up the stairs. But would they listen? Noooo. Instead of trying my way all they would say is "it can't be done." Finally I had to say to them, "well, can you at least try my way to prove me wrong?" (knowing the challenge would be too much for them to resist along with the opportunity for them to tell me I am wrong...). Wanna guess what happened next? Let's just say...I was NOT wrong!!!

{{{{{sigh}}}}} men.......

And the fate of the barcalounger? As much as I am not a fan of it I would never get rid of it (at least not while my MIL is still around. I wouldn't hurt her like that.). It just so happens it fits very nicely kitty-cornered in one of our guest rooms. I took one of the toss pillows from the bed and put it on there and it fills in the corner quite nicely...and I don't have to see it everyday!

In other decorating news, we have are getting our family room carpeted today. I know, I know, there are already hardwoods there and loooove hardwoods and I know it sounds like a sin to cover hardwoods. But it just needs to be done, for a few reasons. First, the hardwoods are original to the house, which would be fabulous had they been taken care of over the years. They were not. When we moved here almost six years ago there was carpet covering them...pretty nasty, old, stained, really beat up carpet. We have no idea how long it had been down. We tore it all up and had someone come in to attempt to re-finish the floors as best as they can. They really did do a good job with what they had to work with but there were stains on the wood that were just too deep to sand away.

See? There are parts where it almost black! It just does not look good at all. When we got some new furniture a couple years ago I started searching for an area rug. I had some requirements, though, that I wouldn't bend on. It had to be thick. It had to be big enough to rest partly under the furniture. It couldn't be a crazy loud print. It had to have some dark red in it. Oh yeah, and I had to be able to pay for it without sacrificing a limb or something. Pretty tall order.

Well, it has been about two years since we got that furniture and still no area rug. I have seen a few that would have worked...till I found the price was in to the thousands. So I finally admitted to myself that just getting a wall to wall plush is probably the way to go. The wood is cold, it is in bad shape (you can't tell from the pictures but there are areas that a rough and pitted), the furniture slides around because we have those felt pads under the legs to protect the wood (I know...). So, today we get carpet!!! The installers should be here between 12 and 3.
The downside? It is a beeee-yooo0-t-ful Saturday and we are stuck at home. It is OK, though. There really is plenty I can do here. We are also having our upstairs hallway re-carpeted. Our entire upstairs (hallway and bedrooms) is carpeted. One bad design choice I made when we moved here was to have the upstairs hallway re-carpeted...in off white. I know I know. Crazy. Needless to say you can literally see the path we walk. It is beyond help. So I am having a nice, subtly patterned, mocha colored berber installed in the hallway.

Wanna hear something funny about the carpet? Bailey loves carpet. He much prefers a soft carpet over the hardwood. When we gave him a milkbone to snack on he would always take it in to the family room and lay down on the old area rug we had and happily munch away. Since we got rid of that old rug and the floor has been bare wood for a couple years now, whenever we give him a milkbone he will take it and immediately run upstairs and eat it in one of the bedrooms. We are convinced it is because he prefers the soft carpet! That dog cracks us up!

So, even though I thought I would never have wall-to-wall in a family room again I am looking forward to it. I think it will warm the room up a bit, too, both literally and decoratively. That room can be chilly in winter, the floor especially. Maybe this will help insulate things a bit. The other bonus to having carpet? Maybe this Christmas we won't smash any more ornaments!!!

I guess I should go be productive. Even though I am stuck at home there is stuff I can get done. I already have laundry going. Gotta get the second load in to the dryer. I plan on hiding out in my craft room for part of the day. I still have to work on the plant stakes I want to make for my veggies and herbs. I have two circle journals to finish and send out. And I want to start working on some bag tags I am making for a QVC Girlfriends Shopping Weekend that my friends and our Moms are going on in July. Our Mom did it last year and had a ball and they wanted us to go with them this year. It sounds cheesy, I know, but I am really looking forward to it. I love doing girls weekends with my Mom. And one of my friends that is coming, Jennie, lives in Chicago now so she is coming home to go with us, so of course her Mom (my Mom's friend) is thrilled and then me and our friend Alex (DIL of my Mom's friend JoAnn) get to see Jennie, too! So I am putting together girlfriend gift bags to give to everyone the morning we leave. I am not even telling my Mom I making these...I want them all to be surprised! We have to be at the bus to depart at 6AM then we get home two nights later after midnight so my boss very generously is having one of our chauffeurs bring us in one of our corporate vans to the sight, so I am going to give them all their gift bags on the ride to the bus!

Wow! This post has gotten super long. And who knows?! I may blog more today since I can't go anywhere! Have a fabulous Saturday!!!