She's here!

Who travels for 18 hours straight on a plane and looks this gorgeous?! MY SISTER! Anyway, this is her arriving in Guam. See that one little suitcase behind her? Yep, that's all she brought for 6 months. She is my packing hero!


I know we're stepping back in time here, but this is how excited Caroline was waiting for Katy to arrive.

So now that Katy is here, I can finally unveil her room makeover. Let me start with some before pictures to give you an idea of the room I was working with. And to clarify, these pictures are from when we moved in, before our furniture arrived.

You're probably thinking "Oh Crystal, what a glamorous life you lead married to a Navy pilot living on a military base on a tropical island." Or laughing. Anyway, at home, Katy's room is bright pink and orange, so I wanted to give her something different here. I was going for energetic, tropical, whimsical and fun. I decided to go with the opposite of what she had at home, so that left me with tropical blue and apple green. So with all of that in mind, here is Katy's room, in counter-clockwise order, like the before pics:

The dresser! That's an antique serpentine dresser I bought in San Diego for $60 and had Ben refinish and paint for me. What did he do to deserve that punishment you ask? Well, I got pregnant and wasn't allowed to use paint thinner, so "my" project became "his." He did a great job though and I love the dresser even more since he put in the work instead of me. And the fringe benefit is that Caroline only has two arms whereas had Ben forced me to do it myself, the paint thinner exposure could have led to her having three arms... or worse. Back to the decorating though! That mirror was a wedding gift that we painted to match the dresser and the decorations were random things I picked up in Guam. Pardon the cord of the small green night lamp showing. I don't have it hooked up yet. Shame!

Here is the bed! Ben painted it and I'm now sensing a theme here. Anyway, those fabulous throw pillows on the bed were sewn by my awesome mother in law, Judy. Didn't she do a great job? The pictures don't show the awesome precision and details. I am in awe! Thanks again, Judy! (And thanks to my mom for mailing the butterfly mobile that Pottery Barn wouldn't.)

The lamp corner! The squares hanging on the wall hold a vase and two elephant figurines from Thailand. My sister loves elephants, so I wanted them to subtly accent the room.

Another shot just to give a little bit of perspective.

The desk area! The desk was originally brown and we, I mean Ben, painted it white. I decorated and put the quote on the wall. The green frames hold pictures of my dad and stepmom (Vicky), Dad fishing and Katy dancing. I wanted her to have reminders of home at hand! And the elephant pen holder and trash can were the last elephant accents I threw in. I figured any more elephants and subtlety would fly out the window.

The view from Katy's door into the room.

That's it, folks! I'll try to give you a random room of the house I've re-done with before and after pics ever so often. You'll see why living in base housing would be glum without some decorative vision!