Challenge Reward!

Even though I'm still working up to my whole post-four-days-a-week thing, I did want to share what I did as a "reward" for actually taking a picture every single day and posting it here in January.

Several of the pictures I took of my house plant (like this one) were all taken in the same place - this weird ledge-think I have in my house, by the stairs. It actually doesn't get much natural light, but with some of the other lights on, it made a good spot for taking pictures at night. So for my reward, I decided to make it nicer - hang some pictures, some paint, and, of course, more plants. Here is what the area looked like while I was trying to pick a paint color:

Green, dark blue and light blue were the options - this area is very open to the rest of house, so it had to match...

 Since I already had the paint, the only things I bought for this area were the two new plants and containers to go with them. I ended up using the light blue paint:

Here you can see the odd shape this ledge has.

 And here it is all finished with pictures and plants:

It's not too cluttered, which is good. always room for more plants.

The plant at the far end is the fake plant that was up there already. The one in the middle is a very bright Dracena - hopefully it will be ok with the lack of light. If not, I'll switch it out with something else.

Here are the pictures that are on one side of the wall. The fun part is that these are all pictures I took during the January challenge! I just printed them on 8x10 photo paper, and framed them. I think I will add matting to them at some point in the future (when I make/find some).

The new plant + pictures on one side

 This plant is a Sanseveria "Moonlight". Loree recommended a Sanseveria for this low light area, and this one is really pretty. Of course, now I have to look at different colored ones every time I go somewhere, and I'll probably end up with more of them, assuming I don't kill this one.

The little succulents in pots that show up in these pictures are also pretty fun - they're not real plants, but wall-stickers that I got at IKEA of all places a while ago! They come six in one pack, and they just stick to the wall, but can come off if needed. I added them to the area to add some more color and interest. Plus now it looks like there's even more plants.

The other side of the wall has this grouping of pictures. The one in the middle is one a local artist made of an airplane. The others are more pictures from the challenge:

The picture arrangement makes sense with the sharply-sloping ceiling at this point

The best thing about this reward is that this is now the view from my favorite spot in the living room:

sorry for the blurry cellphone picture!

Pictures and plants! Much nicer to look at than the white walls and not-much-else that was there before. And now, if I do this challenge again, and need to take pictures indoors at night, I'll have a slightly more interesting background for them! And I'll have the pictures up on the wall to remind me of the challenge - and the fact that I actually did it.

Now if only I could get on that 4-day-a-week posting schedule...